If you are planning a week on company law for the AIBE, stop. It is a two mark row, and the last four papers have asked exactly two questions each.
That is the whole finding, and the rest of this page is the evidence for it, plus the one reason two marks is still not zero.
The short version
- The Bar Council of India's published syllabus allocates 2 questions to company law. That is the joint smallest allocation on the table.
- Across the newest five papers, AIBE XVII to XXI, we counted 11. That is an average of 2.2.
- AIBE XVIII, XIX, XX and XXI each asked exactly 2.
- Across all 19 papers we counted 61, an average of 3.2. Do not use that number. It is inflated by the old papers, and we explain why below.
- The seven oldest papers average 4.9. This subject has more than halved.
- The questions are printed facts: a section number, a threshold, a minimum, a time limit. They are lookups, and they are still only worth two marks.
What the Bar Council says this subject is worth
The current syllabus is a one page table titled "Syllabus for All India Bar Exam-XXI", published on the official exam site on 2 March 2026. This is its row, reproduced exactly as printed:
| Topic / Subject | Questions |
|---|---|
| Company Law | 2 |
Two is the smallest number on that table. Four other rows share it: environmental law, cyber law, the Land Acquisition Act and intellectual property laws. The largest rows on the same table are worth 10.
Put plainly, the Bar Council is telling you that the whole of company law is worth one fifth of what the Constitution is worth. Our numbers say it is telling the truth.
The same table was published for AIBE XX on 27 September 2025, identical row for row. This allocation has been printed twice and has not moved.
What 19 real papers actually show
The Bar Council publishes the past papers and the official answer keys. It does not publish which question belongs to which subject. So we classified all 1,900 questions in our 19 papers ourselves, reading by hand every question a pattern could not settle.
Split by era, company law looks like this:
| Papers | Company law questions | Average per paper | Against the stated 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest seven, AIBE III to IX (2012 to 2016) | 34 | 4.9 | +2.9 |
| Middle seven, AIBE X to XVI (2017 to 2021) | 16 | 2.3 | +0.3 |
| Newest five, AIBE XVII to XXI (2023 to 2026) | 11 | 2.2 | +0.2 |
| All 19 papers | 61 | 3.2 | +1.2 |
That bottom row is a trap, and it is worth understanding because the same trap sits under several subjects. Taken across all 19 papers, company law looks like a subject the Bar Council is quietly under-stating by more than one question a paper. It is not. Every bit of that gap comes from papers sat between 2012 and 2016, and the exam has since moved.
Use the newest five. Here is the whole set, paper by paper:
No paper since AIBE X in 2017 has asked more than 3. No paper before AIBE X asked fewer than 4.
Has this changed between the oldest papers and the newest five
More than almost any other subject we have counted. It has more than halved.
The seven oldest papers average 4.9 company law questions. AIBE IX in 2016 and AIBE VIII in 2015 asked 6 each, which is three times the current rate. The seven middle papers average 2.3. The newest five average 2.2 and the last four papers have sat on exactly 2.
The cut-off is sharp and it falls at AIBE X in 2017. Every paper from 2012 to 2016 asked 4, 5 or 6. Every paper since has asked 2 or 3.
This has a direct consequence for practice. If you drill the 2012 to 2016 papers, you will meet three times as much company law as AIBE XXII is likely to ask you, and you will finish convinced it is a bigger subject than it is.
What actually gets asked
These are real questions from our set, quoted exactly as printed.
What is the minimum number of directors required for a public company as per the Companies Act, 2013?
Section 233 of the Companies Act, 2013, deals with "fast track merger". What is the time duration and the concerned authority for approval?
As per Section 2(84) Share means share in the share capital of a Company and includes----------- --. (1) Debentures (2) Preference Shares (3) Stocks (4) Bonds
We looked closely at seven company law stems from AIBE XVII to XXI. Two things come out of them.
Almost everything is a printed fact. A minimum number of directors. What Section 2(84) includes. The time limit and the approving authority for a fast track merger under Section 233. What Section 43 provides for. In which situations a one person company must convert into a private or public company. The resolution needed to turn a private company into a public one. Every one of those is written down in the Companies Act, 2013 and none of them is a matter of argument.
One doctrine question in seven. AIBE XVII asked what the "doctrine of lifting of or piercing the corporate veil" is associated with. That is the only stem in our recent set that is not a straight lookup.
So this is a lookup subject, like the Code of Civil Procedure and unlike the law of tort. The difference is that the CPC pays 10 marks for the privilege and this pays 2.
What to revise, and what to skip
Give it an evening, not a week. Two marks is two per cent of the paper. If your timetable currently gives company law more hours than the Constitution, which averaged 13.8 questions a paper across the newest five, the timetable is wrong by a factor of about six.
Revise the numbers, because the numbers are the questions. Minimum and maximum numbers of directors and members, the thresholds that force a one person company to convert, the kinds of resolution needed for the common changes, the time limits attached to approvals. Our recent stems are almost entirely made of those.
Know two or three doctrines by name. Lifting the corporate veil is the one that actually appeared.
Skip the Companies Act, 2013 as reading. It is one of the longest statutes on the syllabus and it is worth two questions. Reading it end to end is the single worst trade available to an AIBE candidate.
Skip the old papers for this subject. AIBE VIII in 2015 asked 6. The current exam asks 2.
Two marks is small. It is not nothing.
Here is the argument against writing this subject off completely, and it comes from the marks that actually passed rather than from the marks people quote.
The Bar Council's standing rule is that General and OBC candidates pass at 45 per cent and SC, ST and specially abled candidates at 40 per cent. Neither of the last two exams was decided on 45. At AIBE XX, sat on 30 November 2025, five questions were withdrawn, the paper was marked out of 95, and the General cut-off came out at 43. At AIBE XXI, sat on 7 June 2026, the paper was marked out of 100 and the qualifying mark was cut by three, to 42.
On munotes we have 636 finished practice papers, sat against the Bar Council's own final answer keys, counted on 23 September 2026. Twenty of those papers scored between 42 and 44. That is the band between the number nearly every website publishes, 45, and the number that actually passed AIBE XXI, 42.
Twenty papers out of 636 is about 3 per cent, and for every one of them a single company law question is the difference between two results. Read those as 636 papers rather than as 636 people: many were sat by the same candidates, most of them signed out, so we cannot say how many people sat them.
So: cap the time, do not zero it.
Does this subject earn space in your bag
No. This is the clearest no on the whole syllabus.
The test for a Bare Act is marks per gram. The Companies Act, 2013 is a heavy book, the row is worth two questions, and you will be carrying it past the Constitution, the Code of Civil Procedure, the criminal codes and the Evidence Act, which the Bar Council's own table values at 10, 10, 18 and 8. The two marks do not pay for the weight or the desk space.
If you own a thin copy and you have room left after everything above is in, the stems are lookups and it would earn its two marks. That is the only version of yes.
One rule about the copy you take. The Bar Council's Examination Guidelines say candidates may carry "only BARE ACTS (without notes and comments)". Possession of anything else in the hall is itself a stated risk, not just using it. We have written the carry-in rules up in full, including the second Bar Council document that softens them and the things no document mentions at all, in what you can carry into the AIBE.
What these numbers do not tell you
- The classification is ours, and this subject has a visible border. One of the stems our count places in company law is AIBE XVI question 32, "Health and education cess is applicable to -". A reasonable person would file that under taxation. We flag it rather than hide it, because it shows exactly how much a two question row can move on one judgement call.
- One set per edition. Each AIBE paper is printed in four sets, A to D. We hold one set for each edition, mostly Set A. We cannot show whether the other sets ask the same questions in a different order, so we do not claim it.
- Seven stems is a small sample of a small subject. The patterns above come from seven questions in five papers. They describe those seven honestly.
- Counts are not difficulty. Two questions can still be two questions you get wrong.
Where these facts come from
The syllabus row and the other allocations quoted are the Bar Council's own, from Syllabus for All India Bar Exam-XXI, published on the official exam site on 2 March 2026 and identical to the AIBE XX syllabus of 27 September 2025. The 45 and 40 per cent passing percentages are from Bar Council notice BCIT:D:0014/2026 of 10 February 2026. The carry-in wording is from the Examination Guidelines for AIBE XXI, published 20 February 2026.
The question counts and the 636 practice papers are ours. The counts come from 19 real AIBE past papers held on munotes, 1,900 questions in total, classified by us and counted on 23 September 2026. The three quoted stems are reproduced exactly as printed: AIBE XVIII question 71, AIBE XXI question 66 and AIBE XIX question 70. The other stems referred to are AIBE XIX question 71, AIBE XVIII question 70, and AIBE XVII questions 17 and 24. We have rounded nothing up.
What to do next
The next exam is AIBE XXII on 29 November 2026. Registration opened on 19 August 2026 and closes on 27 October 2026.
Do the company law revision in one evening, from the numbers and not from the Act, and then leave it alone. The hours you just freed belong to the Constitution.
Then check the decision against a real paper. All 19 AIBE previous year question papers are on munotes as timed practice: 100 questions, a three hour timer, and answers taken from the Bar Council's official keys. Count the company law questions yourself. Lifetime access to all 19 is Rs 499, paid once.