The Madras High Court on June 27 dismissed a plea seeking to reduce the application fee for the All India Bar Examination (AIBE), which is conducted by the Bar Council of India (BCI). The decision was announced by the bench of Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice GR Swaminathan. “Unlike in the case of enrolment fee, there is no statutory provision which prescribes any particular sum towards examination fee. A Writ of Mandamus can be issued only if the applicant can show the existence of a legal right. In this case, no such legal right has been shown,” the court said, as per LiveLaw. The bench also added that the Court can only interfere if the fee is 'exorbitant', which is not the case for AIBE where the application fee is Rs 3,500. "Even in the absence of any statutory violation, if we find the quantum of fee to be exorbitant, we would be justified in interfering with the same. But such is not the case. What is demanded from the applicants is only a sum of Rs 3,500. It cannot be said to be high. We do not find any ground to interfere,” the bench was quoted by LiveLaw. This plea to reduce the AIBE application fee was filed by an Advocate, Gokul Abhimanyu. The current application fee was decided in 2017 when the AIBE application fee was hiked to Rs 3,500 by the Bar Council of India for the general category. The fee is Rs 2500 for persons belonging to the Scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribe category.
