Legally India: New Delhi: Friday, 11 July 2014.
In the fourth
and fifth All India Bar Exams (AIBE) in 2012 and 2013, 80 per cent and 73 per
cent respectively passed the exam out of a total of 58,631 persons who applied
for the test, revealed a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by advocate
Kush Kalra with the Bar Council of India (BCI).
Unlike for
the first three exams, the BCI had stopped disclosing pass rates and statistics
for the AIBE after hiring external contractor ITES Horizon Pvt Ltd to carry out
the exam.
Figures for
the sixth AIBE held in January 2014 were not available in the RTI response.
The interval
between exams has been from five to 11 months, with AIBE 5 having taken place
eight months after the previous exam (AIBE 7 too, is currently on track for an
eight month gap after having been postponed to 7 September 2014).
The
available figures, past, present & future:
Total applied
|
Total passed
|
Pass rate
|
Months since last AIBE
|
|
AIBE 7 (scheduled 7 Sep 2014)
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
8+
|
AIBE 6 (Jan 2014)
|
?
|
?
|
?
|
5
|
AIBE 5 (Aug 2013)
|
23,350
|
17,056
|
73%
|
8
|
AIBE 4 (Dec 2012)
|
35,281
|
28,313
|
80%
|
11
|
24,844
|
14,740
|
63%
|
5
|
|
12,158
|
69%
|
4
|
||
19,802
|
71%
|
--
|
Assuming that
each candidate pays around Rs 1,900 for the exam, the lawyers’ regulator could
have made revenues of up to Rs 11.1 crore out of the AIBE 4 and 5, after fees
were raised from Rs 1,300.
Assuming,
more realistically, that around 30 per cent of candidates were repeat exam takers
who only have to pay Rs 1,400 in fees, total revenues would be around Rs 10.3
crore of revenues.
ITES is
understood to retain around Rs 600 per candidate (it is not certain whether
this varies for retakers), for a total of up to Rs 3.5 crore out of AIBE 4 and
5, leaving at least Rs 6.8 crore to the regulator as AIBE revenues.
The total
revenues for the first three AIBEs were only Rs 6.89 crore, though the lion’s
share of those fees – 70 per cent – went to the external contractor Rainmaker.
Fees since
the AIBE 6 are now at Rs 2,500 per candidate.
Total candidates
|
Fees / candidate
|
Total max revenues (assuming no
retakes)
|
Contractor max revenues (ITES: @ Rs 600 /
candidate)
|
|
AIBE 6
|
?
|
Rs 2,500
|
?
|
?
|
AIBE 5
|
23,350
|
Rs 1,900
|
Rs 4.4 crore
|
ITES: Rs 1.4 crore
|
AIBE 4
|
35,281
|
Rs 1,900
|
Rs 6.7 crore
|
ITES: Rs 2.12 crore
|
56,804
|
Rs 1,300
|
Rs 6.89 crore
|
Kalra has
filed a number of RTI’s with the BCI and other bodies, of which one revealed a
break-down of lawyer numbers per state – which the BCI was not able to provide
a response to in this RTI.
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