Leaves candidates, who appeared for the All India Bar Examination last year, confused
Alexander D'souza, candidate
This is mockery of the examination system,' says a candidate who wrote the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) in September last year. His critical remarks came against the backdrop of the changes in the question papers months after the Bar Council of India (BCI) conducted the test.
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The BCI held the AIBE on September 15. While declaring the result on November 23, said that eight questions have deleted from the question paper. It told the candidates that instead of 100 marks they will now evaluated out of 92 marks. The BCI also changed the passing mark to 37 from 40.
If that wasn't enough to confuse the thousands of people who wrote the test, which evaluates a candidate's capability to practice law, the BCI deleted another question on February 22. Subsequently, it announced that now the evaluation marks was reduced to 91 and those who score 36 and above have passed the examination.
The candidates said they have not received the updated scores, and only know if they have passed or failed the exam. Alexander D'souza, who had initially scored 36 marks, said, "How can an examination of a professional level be conducted with a lackadaisical attitude? This is mockery of the examination system. You cannot change the question paper after the test, let alone declaring more changes three months after declaring the result." D'Souza said he has been frequently writing to the BCI to understand why he has been declared failed now, with 36 being the passing mark.
This led to major confusion among candidates. Not only there were changes in the question paper post-examination; their requirement of marks for passing also kept changing with changing number of correct answers.
BCI Secretary Srimanto Sen said, "Final marks for passing were considered based only on the marks obtained from the total of 91 correct questions. However, we have maintained the passing criterion of 40 per cent." Explaining the delayed changes in the question paper, he said, "There were some questions that came under the disputed category, so a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge was set up. The panel recommended deleting of those questions... We have to be more careful from the next time. We will also check how faulty questions were added to the question paper. But there is absolutely no injustice toward the candidates."
Student Law Council president Sachin Pawar questioned the lax attitude, and said that when a candidate pays Rs 3,500 for AIBE, the least the BCI can do is set a correct question paper. "Why should a candidate pay more than once when the exam conductors themselves are not clear on the questions even after declaring the result?" he asked.
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