The Bar Council of India (BCI) has confirmed it has received over 22,000 registrants for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) to be held on January 8, 2012. Each new registrant would be supplied preparatory study materials along with an admit card to enable them to sit for the AIBE.

However, it has been brought to the notice of Bar & Bench that despite the registration closing on December 15, 2011, the registrants had not received the admit card and/or the study material.

A recent press release from the BCI has cleared the air on this issue, stating that preparatory materials have already been dispatched to each of the candidates who are appearing for the first time. The admit cards to all candidates were dispatched from December 28, 2011 onwards. The said press release also states that certain applications were received in a damaged state due to “erroneous delivery” by the postal authorities. 

When we asked Rainmaker, the agency conducting the AIBE, why certain students had not received study material, they told Bar & Bench that, “The post office did not deliver around 900 applications to the BCI as they mistook it as application for the CBSE exam. The post office authorities have given a written admittance that it is their mistake. The CBSE authorities opened these applications and kept it with them. The last date to apply for the AIBE was December 15, 2011; they, the CBSE officials, returned the applications to the post office only on December 22, 2011. Around 800 to 900 proper applications were returned along with a few more torn and damaged ones . They gave it back to the post office after their processing was complete. We had no idea that such a thing had happened.  When the post office returned the applications back to us, we had on humanitarian grounds considered the applications for the upcoming AIBE because it is neither the fault of the candidates nor our fault; it is the fault of the post office. As per the rules we are bound to consider them only for the next AIBE.”

From December 30, 2011 onwards candidates will be able to download their admit cards from the BCI website. Currently, the revised study materials are available for download on the BCI website.

The BCI website also has a list of candidates whose study materials have been returned because of incorrect address etc. and these candidates have been requested to get in touch with the BCI through telephone or email so that the material can be collected.

The press release said, “There is also a list of candidates whose forms were received in a damaged state due to erroneous delivery by the Post Office. The demand drafts and supporting documents of these candidates were also missing. The applications of these candidates have been processed. However, these candidates have been requested to submit their missing documents or demand drafts for declaration of their results. The list of candidates whose applications were erroneously delivered and subsequently handed over to the BCI has also been uploaded, along with the details of missing documents required.”

The list of candidates whose forms/DDs are incorrect etc. also has been put up on the BCI website. These candidates will not be able to appear for this AIBE and will be considered for the next AIBE.