AIBE XVII: Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Time-Bound Declaration Of All India Bar Examination Results

A Writ Petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Bar Council of India (BCI) to declare the result of the XVII All India Bar Examination (AIBE) in a time-bound manner.

The Petitioner-in-person, Mani Munjal states in the petition that her right to practice as an Advocate is being jeopardized, affecting her livelihood due to the non-declaration of the exam (AIBE-XVII) results even after a lapse of more than 2 and a half months.

In the Petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the petitioner has prayed for the issuance of a direction to declare the result of the said examination within the time provided by the Court. The petition states that the life of a person would be miserable if unable to earn a livelihood and therefore the right to earn by engaging in the profession in exercise of the right to practice a profession as enshrined in Article 19(1)(g) cannot be curtailed or restricted unreasonably.

The petition reads, "the right to livelihood is one of the facets of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India."  Further, relying on the judgement of Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corpn., (1985) 3 SCC 545, the petitioner states that the right to life includes the right to livelihood and that under Article 39(a) of the Constitution, the state should ensure that both man and women have the right to an adequate means of livelihood.

The petitioner has further highlighted that the"BCI in delaying the result of 17th AIBE is unreasonable and is an abuse of the powers and there is no justification for making such delay in pronouncing the result of the examination". In addition, it is averred that no Advocate enrolled with the State Bar Council can practice unless he passes the examination conducted by BCI.

Seeking directions from the Court to the BCI to release the results within a set time frame, the petitioner states that the AIBE XVII exam was conducted on February 5, 2023, where the BCI took two months two finalize the answer key and that till date, the result remains undeclared. It has further been stated that the examination was held by way of Multiple-Choice Questions using OMR Technology which is the fastest and most efficient method to evaluate the answer sheets as no human interference is required.

Further, the petition states that "due to the embargo created by Rules 2010, the Petitioner cannot file Vakalatnama in any case and she cannot be engaged as counsel by litigant unless she clears the AIBE." The petitioner poses questions of law that "whether due to delay in declaration of result of 17th AIBE, the right of candidates guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) and Article 21 are being infringed" and  "whether the examining body is required to declare the result of examination within a reasonable time?" 

The plea seeks the following relief in the petition, "Issue writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus directing the Respondent to declare the result of 17th All India Bar Examination at the earliest and within the time provided by the Hon’ble Court"

Cause Title: Mani Munjal v. Bar Council of India [Diary No. 17438 of 2023]