Supreme Court upholds Bar Council’s fee for All India Bar Examination

The Supreme Court has refused to intervene in a petition challenging the fee collected by the Bar Council of India (BCI) from general, Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes’ candidates for appearing in the All India Bar Examination (AIBE).

The BCI charges ₹3,500 from General/OBC candidates and ₹2,500 and other incidental charges from SC/ST candidates.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, petitioner-in-person Sanyam Gandhi, represented by senior advocate Guru Krishnakumar and advocate Ram Sankar, said the fee charged by the BCI was in violation of Section 24(1) (f) of the Advocates Act, 1961 and infringed on the fundamental rights under Articles 19(1)(g) (right to practice any profession) and 14 (equality) of the Constitution.

Mr. Gandhi referred to a recent judgement of the Supreme Court in the Gaurav Kumar case which concerned enrolment fees. Gaurav Kumar case was based on a petition against State Bar Council charging enrolment fee in the thousands when Section 24 of the 1961 Act stipulated only ₹750 for law graduates who belong to the general category and ₹125 from backward communities.

“We may only say that the decision in the case of Gaurav Kumar would apply in so far as the enrollment fees are concerned. Here is a case where the issue is with regard to charging of fees for the conduct of the All India Bar Examination. The petitioner should understand that the Bar Council of India would incur huge expenses for the purpose of conducting of such examination and if they are charging ₹3,500 and ₹2,500 respectively, as referred to above, it cannot be termed violative of any of the provisions of the Constitution or any of the provisions of the Advocates Act,” the court concluded, disposing of the petition.