Bengaluru, October 14: In a relief for anxious law graduates waiting to join the legal profession, the Karnataka High Court on Monday disposed of a writ petition filed by two petitioners seeking immediate processing of their enrolment applications. The Court noted that the Bar Council of India (BCI) had extended the validity of the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) results until March 21, 2026, giving applicants more time to complete the formalities.
The petitioners, S. Gowri Shankar and Vijay Chander T, represented themselves in person before Justice Suraj Govindaraj, challenging what they termed as unnecessary procedural delays by the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC). They argued that despite having cleared their LL.B. examinations and AIBE long ago, their enrolment applications were held up due to an insistence on prior document verification-something they claimed wasn’t mandated under the Advocates Act, 1961.
Their plea sought a direction to KSBC to process applications without such preconditions, refund the ₹2,500 document verification fee (as per an earlier Supreme Court directive), and compensate for the delay allegedly caused by the Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) in issuing provisional certificates.
During the hearing, counsel for KSBC, Sri G. Nataraj, informed the Court that all pending enrolment applications, including those of the petitioners, would be processed “well before March 2026” as long as the required documents were duly furnished. He further assured that if any student failed to submit complete paperwork, the Bar Council would send reminders rather than summarily reject their applications.
Justice Govindaraj took these submissions on record and observed that, since the BCI had already extended the AIBE result validity, the apprehension about petitioners’ enrolment period lapsing was now misplaced. “In view of the extension granted and the assurance by KSBC, nothing further survives for consideration,” the judge noted before disposing of the matter.
As for the issue of document verification charges, the Court refrained from giving any ruling, citing that the matter was already sub judice before the Supreme Court in W.P. No. 352/2023.
The order effectively brings closure to a series of complaints raised by recent law graduates who alleged procedural hurdles in entering the profession. Several young lawyers across Karnataka had voiced concerns about the time-consuming enrolment process and inconsistent document verification norms followed by different state bar councils.
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With this extension, the BCI’s decision is expected to ease the situation for hundreds of graduates whose enrolment was caught up in administrative delays. For now, the petitioners and others in their position can breathe easy at least until March next year.
