This year, over 1.73 lakh aspiring advocates registered for the All India Bar Examination (Representational Image)
Santosh Kumar, a resident of Colonelganj in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, worked his way up from welding to working in a factory. He was only 16 years old when he came to Lucknow, about 90 km from his hometown, in search of good work.
Santosh Kumar, who has been a security guard for over eight years, has cleared the AIBE 17 exam this year. A resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Colonelganj in Gonda district, he did odd jobs ranging from welding to working in a factory. He was only 16 when he came to Lucknow, about 90 km from his hometown, in search of good work.
Kumar completed his graduation in Political Science from a college in Gonda in 2009. In 2012, he completed his post graduation in Political Science. The following year, Kumar enrolled in a three-year law program at NVM College in Lucknow. To support himself financially, he worked at a pizza restaurant chain while pursuing his law degree. Kumar later joined a security services company to ensure that he found time to study. Incidentally, the security service company placed him at the National Law University (NLU) in 2014. Despite graduating in 2016, Kumar could not afford the exam fee to register for the AIBE exam.
Recently speaking to The Indian Express, the 35-year-old said that when he was a child – he remembers attending a program on Dr BR Ambedkar. During that event, he was given a copy of the constitution, and this inspired him to study law.
“I had joined the NLU as a security guard at a salary of Rs 6,500,” Kumar said, according to the Indian Express. Despite his job, Kumar never gave up on his dream of becoming a lawyer. He often sat outside the law classes and listened attentively to the lectures.
Last year, he finally plucked up the courage and told a student that he had a law degree and wanted to become a lawyer one day. There were many people who volunteered to help him. The report said that there were also some students who started a crowdfunding exercise to raise money for Kumar. The students were able to raise Rs 9,000 after which they bought books in Hindi as the university library only had books in English.
A year later, Kumar’s hard work and dedication paid off – he was overjoyed to learn that he had cleared the All India Bar Examination to begin legal practice. As for his future plans, Kumar’s family (wife and four daughters) will stay in Gonda while he will soon start working for a senior advocate in the Lucknow district court. A few days ago he got an offer to work in the advocate’s chamber.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) released the results of All India Bar Examination (AIBE) 17 on May 20 for those applicants who uploaded their enrollment certificate on or before May 15. Candidates can download their updated result on official website allindiabarexamination. com.
This year, more than 1.73 lakh aspiring advocates registered for the All India Bar Examination. Out of which around 1.71 lakh applicants appeared for AIBE 2023. Applicants whose results are still withheld due to missing or incorrect enrollment certificates will get their results by May 30. The council will start the second phase of AIBE 17 OMR sheet rechecking. On 5 August.
