Gulam Rabbani :
Thousands of Law students are completing their graduation course in different universities of the country every year. Most of them dream of joining the legal profession. But in this case, their main suffering is Bangladesh Bar Council test as they have to wait a long to get a schedule for the exam.
There was a time when the exam was held every year or twice a year, which is not happening now. Graduates have to wait two or three years to get a schedule of the test which is frustrating them.
In last eight years since 2015, the Bar Council held only three tests for enrolling the graduates as advocates. The last two examinations were held in 2017 and 2020.
More than 70,000 law graduates participated in the 2020 exam. Of them, 5,972 graduates were finally enrolled on September 25, 2021 after appearing three-step exam. More students were added in the waiting list in last two years to appear in the next test.
Sources said, although the Bar Council conducted two examinations every year till 2011, it is now strategically conducting only one examination every two or three years on the face of growing number of the lawyers.
Even when the Bar Council takes any test again, it is spending one and a half or two years to complete the process of a test. As a result, the students are getting frustrated due to the long hanging process of the enrollment test.
But the Bar Council is not setting any date for the new exam which is frustrating the law graduates.
Mohammad Shekul Zakaria Rahman, a suffered law graduate, who is waiting to be enrolled, said the Bar Council should take initiatives to hold the enrollment examinations at least one in a year and to complete it in time.
As per rule, an LLB graduates have to submit his intimation paper with an advocate in the council in the prescribed form. A graduate gets registration form after he passes six months as a probationer with an advocate. This is the primary qualification to appear in the enrollment exam. Then he has to appear in three-step exam.
Advocate Muhammad Yusuf Hussain
Humayun, a member of the enrollment committee and also Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council, said, “The council does not have any negligence to enroll new graduates. The process was delayed in last two years due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A schedule is ready for holding another test. I hope we can gradually take one test every year.”
According to the rule, enrollment committee of the Bar Council is formed with a judge of the Appellate Division of the SC and two judges from the High Court (HC) Division, Attorney General and an elected member of the Bar Council.
Nazmul Ahsan, an official of the Bangladesh Bar Council, said the Bar Council has already notified for holding the next test. Online form fill up activities are continuing for the next MCQ test which is scheduled to be held in the second week of June this year. Online form fill up will continue till April 27 this year.
