Grams: ALINDIABAR, New Delhi Tel. :(91) 011-4922 000 E-mail; info@barcouncilofindia.org LA Websito : winbarcounciiofincia.org Lou) eee ae fats ua BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA (Statutory Body Constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961) 21, Rouse Avenue Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 002 Date: 21.05.2015 BCID: 22.6 _/2015 (Council) To, 1. Mr. Kian Ganz, Publishing Editor, Mumbai & Delni, Legally India. Email ID: kian.ganz@legallyindia.com Mobile No. +91-9004056651 2. Ms. Prachi Shrivastava, Editor, Delhi Legally India Email ID: prachi.shrivastava@legallyindi Mobile No. +91-9810483059 com Sub.: Your story dated 19% May, 2015 with the heading “RTI'd minutes of BCI reveal how multi-crore bar exam contract was awarded to mystery 5% bidder ITeS Horizon #longread”. Ref: “Mischief and Defamation Committed by you and legally India”, by deliberately concealing material facts. Dear Mr. Kian, ‘The above noted story made by you has been brought to my notice and to the notice of the Hon’ble Members of the Bar Council of India. In this regard, we have decided to bring certain facts to your notice and also to remind you of certain past events which you have deliberately hidden, concealed and suppressed since those facts might reveal the ill motive with which you have published such stories against Bar Council of India. 1. That on 16 December, 2012, the Bar Council of India passed Resolution .127/2012 which is as follows: - “The Hon’ble Members are of the considered opinion that such items are being published deliberately at the instance of the earlier agency and only because the Council has virtually stopped the sale of some study material/guess papers which was being published and sold @ Rs. 2800 by a few people attached with Legally India and M/s Rainmakers. Tt is therefore resolved that the Council shall take appropriate legal action against “Legally India” and all other concerned or individuals who are responsible to issue defamatory and objectionable statement against the Bar Council of India. Hon'ble Chairman is authorized 10 take appropriate action.”9e This resolution was passed because of the fact that being part of M/s Rainmakers you were deliberately doing the mischief and were trying to defame the Bar Council of India. ‘The reason being that M/s Rainmakers was thrown out and was not allotted the work to conduct All India Bar Exam after AIBE-III ie. after completion of its tenure. There were several sorts of allegations against M/s Rainmakers (of which you are still a part) and it was on account of the substantive informations against the misdeeds of your agency (M/s Rainmakers) that the Bar Council of India decided not to allot the work to your agency. In the year 2010 M/s Rainmakers was awarded the work to conduct AIBE @ & 900 per candidate and in the year 2012 when fresh tenders were invited, M/s Rainmakers expressed its readiness to do it @ only € 560/- per candidate. Meaning thereby, that it had cheated the candidates for 2 years. ‘And this was also one of the reason for non-grant of work to your agency. So far your attempt regarding the manner of allotment of work to your agency (M/s Rainmakers), I don’t want to say anything else, except the fact that the allotment of work to M/s ITES Horizon Pvt. Ltd. is much more fair and transparent than that of M/s Rainmakers. And apparently it was due to this reason that you did not ask for the minutes of Bar Council of India of the year 2010 containing the allotment of work to M/s Rainmakers and you have deliberately asked for and published the copies of minutes (through your RTI application) only after June, 2012. This itself speaks volumes. The comparative study of the processes adopted by the Bat Council of India in the year 2010 and 2012 will reveal the truth. One thing more is important to be noted that Hon’ble Apex Court has held it on so many occasions that it is not necessary to award the contract always to the lowest tenderer and it is upon the organization (seeking work from the different contractors/agencies) to examine and decide the overall suitability and many other aspects before awarding any work or contract to any agency. The Bar Council of India has acted in more fair and transparent manner and then decided to allot the work to M/s ITES Horizon Pvt. Ltd. as back as in the year 2012, finding it to be most suitable for the Council and for the lawyers of the country. ‘The agency has been successfully conducting the All India Bar Exam from the year 2012 without any complaint or grievance from any comer and except a person/the so-called media like you, up till now, nobody else has found any sort of defect in the functioning of the agency. Certainly, since the MoU of the agency M/s ITES Horizon Pvt. Ltd. is going to expire in a few months, you have again started creating nuisance by making such motivated stories, but it is for your kind information that Bar Council of India has already blacklisted your agency namely M/s Rainmakers from getting any contract or work of the Council in future because of your misconducts during last almost 3 years. The All India Bar Exam is monitored by a “High Level Monitoring Committee” headed by a former Hon'ble Judge of Apex Court and consisting of noted academicians of the country. The dates of examination are fixed or postponed with their approval. ‘The dates are postponed only because of the request of the State Bar Councils or of the Universities because of the delay in publication of results of LL.B. Exams of some of the universities in some states. So far, your story relating to the enhancement of fee of All India Bar Exam is concerned, this was a question raised in several courts and the Hon'ble Coutts, after finding it to be genuine, have approved the same long back keeping in view the abnormal price hike in all fields.-3- So far your story regarding provisional permission granted to the advocates to practice without passing AIBE is concerned, you must know that the main object of this exam is to improve the standard of the advocates, and not to punish them; therefore, the Bar Council of India has taken the such resolutions in the interest of the advocates of the country to give them more opportunities. You have deliberately made allegations about the delay in providing “Certificate of Practice” to the lawyers after passing the exam. The Certificate of Practice is issued to the lawyers soon after publication of their results and the delay, if any, sometimes occurs due to change in the office of the Chairmen of the State Bar Councils as the Certificate of Practice is required to bear their signatures also. You are wrong in saying that Bar Council of India cannot disclose the pass- rate or the number of candidates. In fact, in order to avoid the multiple and large number of litigations throughout the country, the Bar Council of India has taken certain resolutions. Bar Council of India is a non-governmental statutory authority; it does not get any financial assistance from any Government. Therefore, it is not at all possible for the Council to meet the heavy expenses of litigation throughout the country on account of publication of result of any candidate. Rather, the Bar Council of India has opened its door to all the candidates ot any citizen to get his answer sheet re-evaluated and/or to examine/peruse his answer sheet here in the office of Bar Council of India itself We have not stopped the candidates from going into the litigation, but we have simply resolved that in case of completely baseless and frivolous litigations, the candidates will have to bear the cost of litigations. ‘You must bear in mind that in this case, the candidates are non else, but the advocates of the country. Therefore, in order to restrain the mischievous people or the agencies like you or the persons set-up by the agencies like you, the Bar Council of India has been compelled to take such decisions. ‘That In the letter written to me vide your email dated 15.05.2015 in which you had made several queries and had sought certain answers from me with regard to allotment of work to M/s ITES Horizon Ltd. in the year 2012. It is relevant to point out, at the very outset, that while you have quoted the names of M/s Aspiring Minds, M/s Pearson VUE and M/s Manupatra Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd., you have deliberately and purposely left the name of yur ie. in whicl the aspirant for the work of All India Bar Exam in the year 2012. Certainly, since, you were/are a part of M/s Rainmakers and you know it fully well that if this fact is known to the viewers, they will immediately realize the truth of your misdeeds and mischief and your oblique motive with which you have been publishing your stories against Bat Council of India from July, 2012 onwards. That it was because of the frequent allegations being set-up by some of the unsuccessful agencies particularly M/s Rainmakers through some unknown persons (who started making frivolous and motivated allegations) that the Bar Council of India had to tesolve to refer the matter of allotment of work of All India Bar Exam to be enquired through a former Hon'ble Judge of Supreme Court of India in the year 2013 itself. The enquiry committee has examined everything and has found the allotment perfectly fair. Therefore, the Council does not require a “ TIFI EO FAIR) 3” from a unwanted /undesirable media like “Legally India” in this regard.-4- That on 12.12.2014, you committed mischief and misdeed and you and Ms. Prachi Shrivastava went to the extent of doing misbehavior. You both threatened the Secretary and the staff people of the Bar Council of India. When I and other office bearers and members of the Council received this information from our Secretary, Joint Secretary and Assistant Secretary, then on the same day, the Bar Council of India vide its letter No.BCI:D:5864/2014 (Council) dated 12.12.2014 wrote letters to Hon’ble Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Hon’ble Chairman, Press Council of India ‘The contents of that letter is reproduced below: - “1 would like to inform you that the head and representative/correspondent of one electronic media namely “Legally India”, Mr. Kiang has misbehaved with the officials of the Bar Council of India in the disguise of RTI Act. The sequence of event happened has been informed through our letter No.BCI:5863/2014 (Council) dated 12.12.2014 to the Chairman, office-bearers and members of Bar Council of India. The copy of the letter is enclosed herewith. This electronic media is taking undue advantage of its being a media news. The matter is very serious. You are kindly requested to take appropriate necessary action against Legally India and its Head Mr. Kiang.” ‘Thereafter, on 15.12.2014, you published on your website the full transcript of the conversation made between you and me and a few of that transcription is relevant to be noted herein for the kind information of your viewers and of general public: - ‘Manan Kumar Mishra Kian Ganz We have all the apprehension because of your past. Aha. Ok. But that has nothing to do with RTI Act. ‘Nuisance and unnecessary criticism of BCI. This is not true. You pick and choose certain lines [of the minutes to publish] The motive [of Legally India] is oblique. No hesitation in saying that in past also you have done some mischief. and again you are going to do certain mischief which Bar Council of India is not going to [inaudible] tolerate. Because of ‘mischief’ you ate saying you have no obligation under RTI Act? We can't supply it to Legally India because it is going to commit mischief. You have an interest fin the Bar Exam] [You have alliance with some of the agencies - inaudible] We have a strong proof, we are able to establish that in past also you have done this mischief. Your alliance with the Rainmaker... EE RRERE Ag VY VUYUY VY RB RRS ROA VW vu-5- M 2 Even in the past also, you, you you are in the habit of publishing certain study materials, you sell it, and you wanted to have AIBE agency, Bar Council of India denied it, these ate the reasons, therefore we are not going to [supply the documents}. K > Even if we are Rainmaker or any other company, legally, RTI Act specifies that this be supplied irrespective of who we are as petitioners. It doesn't matter if we are the worst people on earth and we make mischief, the point is there is a right. M > The purpose is malign the image of the counsel, you create certain nuisance, you... w.to give the agency of AIBE to you, to allow you to publish the study materials, this is the, therefore you are doing all this. This has got nothing to do with that. The question is why is the Bar Council hiding those minutes? What is there to hide? Whatever my statement is there, you should publish everything. Oh, we'll publish the entire thing, don't worry. Because of this mischief, you were denied AIBE, you were denied- you wet What mischief exactly? we don't allow you to sell [bat exam preparation materials}, and still you have been selling! Yes, we are selling bar exam preparation materials. That is absolutely irrespective of anything else.” & v a v Pe a ee VY Ve uv Thus, the fact that (i) you were a part and parcel of M/s Rainmakers is admitted and known to all; (ii) that you have been committing mischief with Bar Council of India from the day M/s Rainmaker was denied the award of work to hold All India Bar Exam is obvious; and (jii) the fact that you have deliberately been publishing such stories and articles on your website is also apparent. When you (M/s Rainmakers) were denied the work of All India Bar Exam, you adopted another malpractice to make money from the candidates and in order to exploit them, you started selling study material online for an exorbitant price (approximately Rs.2800/- per candidate) and you tried to mislead the students using the name of M/s Rainmakers and other agencies. You have admitted this fact in your conversation made on 15.12.2014 with me. We have ample material to establish this fact. ‘The Bar Council of India has already provided you the minutes (as assured by me) and as per my apprehension (expressed during out conversation dated 15.12.2014), you have committed the mischief and you have not left any stone unturned in maligning the image of Bar Council of India, And you have published your story on 19.05.2015 with complete/ oblique motive. By doing so, you have committed the offence of defamation for which yo! iable to bs cute: nis the iat wm. And your Registration/Licence to run any media is liable to be cancelled. You are misusing your Licence.10. 11. -6- So far you (Mr. Kian Ganz) is concerned, as per our information, you are a foreign national, not a citizen of India and you have been using the Legally India for oblique purposes to serve some vested interests. What is the source of income of Legally India and M/s Rainmakers is unknown to all. The various stories for entry of foreign law firms and foreign lawyers in India published by you will reveal that you working in India as a foreign agent with the sole motive to pressurize the Bar Council of India and the lawyers of the country to succumb to allow the foreign lawyers and foreign law firms to practice in India. If you are not a citizen of India, you are not at all entitled to put any question to the Council. We are sending @ copy of this complaint to all concerned so that registration of “Legally India” could be cancelled. We are also making all other media agencies concerned with the mal-practices of Legally India and Mr. Kian. ‘The Bar Council of India has already blacklisted your agency namely M/s Rainmakers because of its past and subsequent misconducts and the Council has debarred M/s Rainmakers form applying for any work of Bar Council of India in future. I hope and expect that very fairly you shall publish the full text of this letter of Bar Council of India on your website, so that your viewers could be made acquainted with your real face. Sd/- (Manan Kumar Mishra) Chairman Copy to: - 1. Hon’ble President of India; 2. Hon'ble Prime Minister of India; 3. Hon’ble Chief Justice of India; 4. Hon'ble Judges of Supreme Court of India; 5. All the Hon'ble Chief Justices and Hon’ble Judges of all the High Courts of the Country; 6. Hon'ble Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting; 7. Hon'ble Chairman, press Council of India; 8. Hon'ble Chief Information Commissioner, Centeal Information Commission; 9. All the State Bar Councils of India; 10. All the Bar Associations of India; 11. All the institutions of Legal Education in India and in the world; and All the Print and Electronic Media of India and abroad.