The Bar Council of India (BCI) in a press release on June 10 has said that it is mandatory for all Law colleges and universities to conduct Term-end exams for intermediate and final semester students of Law courses. Institutes must ensure to first analyse the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic in respective area and plan accordingly to hold exams.
The Recommendation of holding exams is suggested by an experts panel formed by the bar council earlier. The former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice Govind Mathur was appointed as the head of this panel. The Bar council considered the panels suggestions and decided to conduct exams for legal education across the country.
The Panel has suggested that Law Schools will have to conduct the exams with their own preferences. The institutes are free to decide the mode of exam as per their convenience. But the College or university must strictly keep in mind the situations of pandemic in their area and must ensure availability of resources for safety of stakeholders.
The experts committee has given a free choice for mode of examination. It could be either offline, online, blended, open-book exam or even assignments-based evaluation. If the Institute decides to hold offline exams, the pattern of questions and time duration for each paper can be changed accordingly to avoid any spread of the viral infection.
As the situations became more unfavourable for conduction of exams due to second wave of the pandemic, Bar council ordered to postpone the Law exams. With several exams being cancelled in the nation, The BCI was forced to make a final decision over conduction of exams or promotion of LLB students in current session.
The Council thus formed a high-level commitee which can deliberately resolve such issues in a very short duration. BCI also asked the committee to consider promotion and evaluation of students in case exams would not be held. However, the experts panel was in favour to organize exams and especially for final year students.