74,368 candidates failed All India Bar Examination: RTI reply

Only 48.36% of the candidates who appeared for the 18th edition of the All India Bar Examination (AIBE 18) held on December 10, 2023 passed, a reply from the Bar Council of India (BCI) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed..The query, sent by Advocate Shibu Babu, sought information from the BCI on various concerns including the frequency of the examination, the registration process, repeated rescheduling of the exam, the testing agency, the reasons for not revealing marks obtained by a candidate, delays in publishing the final answer keys and delays in publishing the results. Additionally, the query requested information on the number of candidates who registered, appeared, passed and failed..In response, the BCI revealed that a total of 1,48,781 candidates had registered for the exam, out of whom 1,44,014 appeared.Out of the people who appeared, 69,646 (48.36%) passed and 74,368 (51.64%) failed..Regarding the frequency of the exam, the BCI stated that although the rules require AIBE to be conducted twice a year, it could not be held as scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The BCI has also mentioned that 7 questions from the exam were removed following the decision of a High-Level Monitoring Committee that considered objections received from various candidates of AIBE-18. .However, for all other queries, the BCI has cited the Supreme Court's decision in CBSE and Anr v. Adhitya Bandopadhyay and Ors to assert that the information sought was not 'information' as defined under the RTI Act. In the judgment, the apex court had held that a public authority is not required to furnish information which requires drawing of inferences, or making of assumptions, or which qualifies as an advice or opinion..BCI officials were not available for comment at the time of publishing this story..[Read RTI query and reply]