Bar
& Bench: New Delhi: Tuesday, October 09, 2012.
In June this
year, the Bar Council of India (BCI) had invited tenders from “consultant
expert agencies” to hold the fourth All India Bar Examination (AIBE) after the
BCI had ended the contract with Rainmaker. However, due to paucity of time, the
BCI had announced that the fourth AIBE will be conducted by Rainmaker only but
as a temporary measure.
Thereafter,
the BCI retracted from its statement that Rainmaker would be roped in as
temporary agency to conduct the fourth AIBE and decided that they would first
finalise on the permanent agency and then conduct the AIBE even if it meant
delay of few months. Despite inviting tenders, the BCI could not finalise on
the agency and announced that they will themselves conduct the next AIBE with
the assistance of ITES Horizon.
In the
meanwhile, Bar & Bench, through an RTI application filed by Associate
Editor, Raghul Sudheesh, has obtained a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) that was signed on May 27, 2010 between Rainmaker and the BCI for
conducting all the All India Bar Exams.
Below is the
summary of the MoU that was signed between the BCI and Rainmaker to conduct
AIBEs and to assist the BCI in development of its website.
Only the
first paragraph of the MoU deals with the conduct of the AIBE and rest of the
MoU deals with other programmes that were to be undertaken by the BCI and
Rainmaker.
On AIBE, the
MoU states as follows, “Rainmaker Training & Recruitment Private Limited
(“Rainmaker”) and the Bar Council of India (“BCI”) have as at the date hereof
entered into a binding memorandum of understanding to further their common
desire to strengthen the legal profession in India and specifically for the
conduct of an examination to permit Advocates to practise before any judicial
body in India and to assist the BCI in the development of its website.”
In addition
to above commitments the BCI and Rainmaker also agreed, “to explore other
avenues of collaboration through which Rainmaker shall, in good faith, work
towards developing programmes which allow the BCI access to certain of its
legal outreach services, lawyer’s networks and resources so as to facilitate
the BCI in enhancing the overall standards of legal education and knowledge
related areas of the legal profession. This letter of intent (LoI) sets out the
terms of the commitment and intention of the BCI and Rainmaker to implement the
matters set out herein.”
Unique
Identification Number Project’s Origin
The BCI’s
ambitious “Unique Identification Number” (UIN) project’s origin can be traced
back to this MoU. Under the contract,
Rainmaker had undertaken to provide technical assistance and logistical support
to the BCI in identifying a vendor for the creation and implementation of UIN
project and email access for lawyers in order to create a database of all
advocates registered to practice, legal academics and law students. It was
mutually agreed in the MoU to commence the UIN project by August 1, 2010 and
complete the same by December 31, 2010.
As a step
facilitating the BCI in the development and implementation of UIN project,
Rainmaker had agreed to allow all persons enrolled under the project with free
two month subscription to the basic version of Rainmaker’s proprietary
litigation practice management tool (“Casedate”) and allowed members to be
automatically enrolled as account holder in myLaw, Rainmaker’s contextual
network.
Rainmaker had
also agreed not to charge the BCI for the assistance on the UIN project.
However, it was agreed in the MoU that Rainmaker would have access to the UIN
system and the data stored in the database “to meet the requirements of the
project”.
Another
interesting fact to be noted is that Rainmaker had also agreed to assist the
BCI in putting together a database of law firms and the LPO service firms
across India.
Legal
Common Admission Test
As per the
MoU, Rainmaker had also agreed to work with the BCI to create and implement a
Legal Common Admission Test (LCAT) for admission to undergraduate and
post-graduate legal degree programmes in law colleges across India. Rainmaker
was to formulate the entire system and plan for the LCAT, including revenue
share and responsibilities and was to finalise it by October 31, 2010 as the
BCI was keen to hold LCAT prior to the beginning of the academic year 2011-12.
The MoU clarified that the responsibilities and the revenue shares for the LCAT
would be along the lines of those agreed between the parties for the conduct of
AlBE.
If this was
to be implemented, like the division of AIBE shares; Rainmaker would have got
70% of the income from LCAT and the BCI’s share would be the balance 30%.
Continuing
Legal Education (CLE)
Another
programme for which Rainmaker had agreed to work with BCI was to create a
policy, structure and system for regulation of continuing legal education (CLE)
for the legal profession in India. For this programme also, Rainmaker agreed to
allow access for members of legal profession and law students, its resources
and information on myLaw. Rainmaker agreed to conduct a free of cost, pilot CLE
programme from August 1, 2010 till December 31, 2010. However, the cost of CLE
and the respective revenue shares was left to be decided later.
Exclusivity,
Revenue Shares and ownership of Intellectual Property
The MoU
between Rainmaker and the BCI had an exclusivity clause that during the term of
the MoU, Rainmaker shall be the exclusive service provider for implementation
of the various projects.
The amount
payable to Rainmaker for the provision and implementation of all services
proposed under the MoU was to be mutually agreed between the BCI and Rainmaker
before commencement of such service and separate agreements were to be made for
each service.
As per the
MoU, each party was to retain all right, title and interest in its respective
products and services and works including all products and services developed
by the respective parties under the MoU. This MoU was to expire on January 31,
2011.
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