A view of the High Court of Karnataka. | Photo Credit: File photo The High Court of Karnataka has issued a slew of directions to the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) to evolve a digital mechanism to identify and take action against advocates who continue to practise without clearing the mandatory All India Bar Examination (AIBE).The court directed the KSBC to take immediate steps to initiate action against persons who have not qualified to continue practice as advocates owing to their failure to clear the AIBE, observing that practising as an advocate without clearing the examination “is an offence against society at large”.Justice H.P. Sandesh issued the directions while dismissing a petition filed by M.

Prasanna Kumar of Bangarpet in Kolar district. The petitioner had challenged a Bangarpet trial court’s 2019 direction to the police to investigate allegations that he had cheated litigants and courts by practising as an advocate for over a decade without clearing the AIBE.Evolve mechanismThe court directed the KSBC to maintain a digital record of enrolment dates and the expiry of the two-year period within which persons enrolled as advocates must clear the examination under the Bar Council of India (BCI)’s AIBE Rules, 2010.

The AIBE is mandatory for those enrolled after 2010.The KSBC, the court said, will have to evolve a mechanism to track those who were provisionally enrolled but failed to clear the AIBE within two years, and prepare a list of advocates whose enrolment stood automatically suspended for not clearing the examination, to curb instances of illegal practice.The court also directed the KSBC to create an integrated system to automatically verify AIBE results with the assistance of the BCI and to give advocates an opportunity to explain discrepancies before action is taken against them. The court has given the KSBC 45 days to evolve the new mechanism.Case backgroundOne Narayanappa, an advocate, lodged a complaint with the Bangarpet police alleging that the petitioner, who was provisionally enrolled with the KSBC in 2011, became automatically disqualified from practising law after failing to clear the AIBE within the stipulated two-year period.

Despite this, the petitioner allegedly continued to practise before various courts in Bangarpet and KGF, thereby cheating judges, litigants and the public through misrepresentation, constituting offences under the Indian Penal Code and professional misconduct under the Advocates Act, 1961.When the police declined to register a criminal case, Mr. Narayanappa filed a private complaint before the Principal Civil Judge and JMFC Court in Bangarpet, which referred the complaint to the police for investigation.The petitioner challenged the referral, arguing that the alleged misconduct fell exclusively within the disciplinary jurisdiction of the KSBC under Section 35 of the Advocates Act and that criminal prosecution for a regulatory violation amounted to an abuse of process.

He further contended that his continued practice was a bona fide mistake as the word “provisional” had been omitted from his enrolment certificate.Rejecting the petitioner’s contentions, the High Court noted that he himself had admitted that he did not take the AIBE for nearly a decade and cleared it only in 2021, while holding that disciplinary proceedings and a criminal case could coexist independently against him. Published - October 22, 2026 06:47 pm IST