Bar Council of India directed to post question papers and keys of the All India Bar Examination on its website

Central Information Commission (CIC): While observing that it is the bounden duty of Bar Council of India (BCI) to make all the previous question papers available to the young lawyers, CIC directed BCI to post on its website the question papers and keys of the All India Bar Examination on its website. CIC was hearing an appeal filed by an RTI activist who sought the copy of previous question papers prepared for the conduct of All India Bar Examination. Earlier, the information was not furnished to the appellant on the pretext that at that time the Bar Council was considering the policy decision as to disclosure of question papers. Before the Commission, BCI submitted that the copies of last three examination papers can be provided to the appellant but the copies of first three examinations cannot be provided as All India Bar Exams (AIBE) were conducted by private contractor Rainmaker, and BCI claimed that the company had not shared the first three AIBE question papers with the BCI. While rejecting the excuse of BCI that the question papers were not handed over to them by Rainmaker, CIC noted that, “If the firm which conducted tests has not handed over the copies of examination papers, the Bar Council of India should have initiated legal action to recover them.” The Commission observed that around 27000 young advocates could not clear this qualifying examination and every year law universities and law departments of other universities will be rolling out thousands of young law graduates, who are expected to take this mandatory examination. CIC directed the Public Authority to collect the copy of question papers with key for first three years from the Rainmaker firm which conducted examination, and keep the same on official website for the use of young lawyers. CIC also directed BCI to provide question papers along with the key on the official website immediately after completion of every Examination, as it would avoid exploitation of young lawyers by commercial elements through selling the question papers with key at exorbitant rates. (B.N. Reddy v. Bar Council of India, 2015 SCC OnLine CIC 603, decided on 17-03-2015)