The Bar Council of India (BCI)

The Bar Council of India (BCI), headquartered at Delhi, is a constitutional body formed under the Advocates Act, 1961. BCI regulates legal education and professional standards in India including directing the state bar councils, standardising law education and course framework at the universities and law colleges in India also as conducting the All India bar exam (AIBE) to grant ‘Certificate of Practice’ to advocates practising law in India. BCI also funds welfare schemes for economically weaker and physically handicapped advocates. The law graduates need to enrol with their state’s bar council on payment of Rs 600 and Rs 150 to the BCI.

The enrolment committee of BCI verifies the applications sorts of the candidates and are given ‘Certificate of Enrolment’. BCI comprises of members chosen from the law fraternity in India.

Functions of the BCI

The Section 7 of the Advocates Act, 1961, specifies the BCI representative and regulatory directive for legal education also because the bar within India. The functions of the BCI are:

• Laying down professional conduct standards and propriety for advocates
• Laying down procedures that has got to be followed by the varied disciplinary committees
• Protecting the rights, interests, and privileges of advocates
• Promoting and supporting law reforms
• Dealing with and removing any matter that’s referred by any of the State Bar Council (SBC)
• Promoting legal education and laying down legal education standards
• Determining universities whose academic degree provides the needed qualification for enrolling as an advocate
• Conducting seminars on legal subjects by renowned jurists and publishing papers and journals of legal interest
• Organising and providing legal assistance to the poor
• Recognising foreign law qualifications gained outside India for admission as an advocate
• Managing and investing funds of the BCI
• Providing for electing its members who will manage and administer the Bar Councils
• Organising and providing legal assistance to the scheduled caste

Eligibility for Enrollment of Advocates to the BCI

The Advocates Act, 1961, Section 24, states the qualifications of a private permitted to enrol within the BCI. This section stipulates that conditional on the Act’s provisions and therefore the rules framed, a private shall be qualified and eligible to be enrolled as an advocate on a State roll if he/she meets the prerequisites as below

• They should be an Indian citizen; a resident of the other nation is often permitted as an advocate on a State roll provided Indian citizens who are duly qualified, are authorized to practice law within the other nation, subject to other limitations.
• They should be a minimum of 21 years.
• They have obtained an academic degree after completing three years of law course from any university within India that’s recognised for the target and intent of the Act by the BCI. during a few cases, an advocate who has gained a degree from any University outside India, and if the degree is recognised for the target and intent of this Act by the BCI, he could also be admitted.
• They must satisfy such other prerequisites as stipulated within the rules made by BCI

At present, a private who desires to urge enrolled as an advocate has got to first clear the BCI exam. Subsequently, the person can enrol himself/ herself under any State Bar Council (SBC). Eligible individuals are admitted as advocates on the rolls of the SBCs. The Advocates Act empowers SBCs to formulate their own rules concerning the enrolment of advocates. The Council’s enrolment committee will examine a candidate’s application. Different SBCs have framed their own rules concerning enrolment as an advocate. Nevertheless, many of the SBCs require candidates to use along side their academic degree and mark sheets along side a judicial stamp paper and necessary fees.

The candidates need to send the appliance fee for enrollment with SBC and BCI through the separate Demand Drafts to every .

Those admitted as advocates by any SBC are eligible to require the AIBE that’s conducted by the BCI. Passing the AIBE grant state-enrolled advocates with a Certificate of Practice (COP) that facilitates them in practising law as an advocate in any inferior court and supreme court within the Indian territory.

All India Bar Exam

AIBE is a national level exam which is organised by the BCI and has been designed with fulfilling the target to assess the potential of advocates who have a robust desire to practice law in India. This examination is conducted semi-annually and tests advocates on procedural and substantive law. The AIBE will appraise skills at a fundamental level and fix a minimum benchmark for admission to practice law. After passing the examination, the candidate are going to be awarded the Certificate of Practice (CoP) by the BCI, and that they become eligible to practice law in India.

The eligibility perquisites for the AIBE is about by the BCI. If the BCI realises that an applicant is unqualified, then their application are going to be disqualified. Therefore, candidates must check the AIBE eligibility perquisites before filling the appliance form. The eligibility criteria that candidates must know before applying for the AIBE exam are-

• Only Indian resident candidates are eligible
• The aspiring candidates must have completed their three-year or five-year LLB course of study from any recognised university
• Candidates must be enrolled with any SBC (under Section 24 of the Advocates Act 1961)
• He/she should have an advocate ID Card/enrollment card issued by the State Bar Council

Some of the opposite essential points to recollect are:

• There is no regulation to seem for the exam
• There is no limit to the amount of attempts
• There are not any minimum marks prescribed within the qualifying exam

Source: https://www.shiksha.com/law/articles/bar-council-of-india-bci-all-you-need-to-know-blogId-23717

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