Family law is the subject people plan badly for. It is worth 8 questions on the Bar Council's syllabus, which sounds like one statute. The six family law questions in the last AIBE came from six different laws, and not one of them was the Hindu Marriage Act.
We counted the family law questions in 19 real AIBE papers, from AIBE III in 2012 to AIBE XXI sat on 7 June 2026. The subject runs a little under what the syllabus promises and a long way wider.
The short version
- The Bar Council's published syllabus allocates 8 questions to Family Law, and names no statute at all.
- Across the newest five papers, AIBE XVII to XXI, we counted 35. That is an average of 7.0, one question under the stated figure.
- Across all 19 papers we counted 122, an average of 6.4.
- The two most recent papers, AIBE XX and AIBE XXI, asked 6 each. That is the lightest family law has been since 2016.
- The breadth is the difficulty. The eight recent stems we read closely come from seven different laws: Hindu, Parsi, Christian and secular marriage law, guardianship, adoption, and one set of rules made in 2025.
- Half of those stems ask for a figure printed in the statute. A duration, a maximum fine, the hours of the day, a time limit.
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. Row 7 reads, exactly as printed:
| Topic / Subject | Questions |
|---|---|
| Family Law | 8 |
That is the whole row. Two words and a number.
Compare what the Bar Council does elsewhere in the same table. The criminal procedure row names two codes. The evidence row names two statutes. Contract shares its row with three other named Acts. Family law is handed over as a heading with nothing under it, and which Acts are in scope is left to you.
The same row appeared in the AIBE XX syllabus of 27 September 2025. The silence is settled, not an oversight in one edition.
What 19 real papers actually show
The Bar Council publishes the 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.
| Papers | Family law questions | Average per paper | Against the stated 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest seven, AIBE III to IX (2012 to 2016) | 30 | 4.3 | -3.7 |
| Middle seven, AIBE X to XVI (2017 to 2021) | 57 | 8.1 | +0.1 |
| Newest five, AIBE XVII to XXI (2023 to 2026) | 35 | 7.0 | -1.0 |
| All 19 papers | 122 | 6.4 | -1.6 |
And paper by paper:
The twelve most recent papers, back to AIBE X in 2017, all land between 6 and 9. Every paper older than that asked 6 or fewer. The subject grew, and then it settled.
Has this changed since the older papers
Yes, twice, and in opposite directions.
The old papers barely asked it. The seven oldest, from 2012 to 2016, average 4.3 questions, nearly four short of the stated 8. AIBE III asked two in a hundred.
Then it doubled. The seven middle papers, 2017 to 2021, average 8.1, and AIBE XI and AIBE XII asked 9 each. For those five years the subject ran slightly ahead of its syllabus row.
The newest five average 7.0, and the two most recent asked 6 each, the lowest since AIBE IX in 2016. Be careful with that. Two papers is two papers. It is enough to say the subject is not over-delivering now, and not enough to say it is shrinking. Plan for 7 and you will be close.
What actually gets asked
Three real questions from AIBE XXI and AIBE XX, quoted exactly as printed:
Under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, between which hours must a marriage generally be solemnized?
Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, which situation makes the consent of a wife unnecessary for adoption?
If a case is transmitted to the Central Government under Section 10 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, what is the time limit for solemnizing the marriage after its decision?
Seven laws in eight questions
We hold all six of AIBE XXI's family law questions and two from AIBE XX. Those eight stems name seven different laws:
- Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936
- Special Marriage Act, 1954, twice, in both papers
- Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872
- Uniform Civil Code Rules Uttarakhand, 2025
- Guardians and Wards Act, 1890
- Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956
- Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
The Hindu Marriage Act is not the subject. It appears once in eight, and not at all in the six questions of AIBE XXI. A candidate who revised Hindu personal law and stopped would have had one of those six questions covered, the adoption one.
The secular statutes pull their weight. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is the only statute in our eight that turns up in both papers, once for a time limit under Section 10 and once for a maximum fine. If you carry one family law statute, that is the one with the best record in front of us.
The exam follows new law quickly. AIBE XXI, sat in June 2026, asked a question under the Uniform Civil Code Rules Uttarakhand, 2025. Rules made the year before the paper were examinable in it, and no guide written from the old papers contains that.
Half the eight ask for something printed rather than something argued: a duration of maintenance, a maximum fine, the hours between which a marriage must be solemnized, a time limit after a decision. Three of the other four ask a condition, which is still a text question: what makes a wife's consent unnecessary for adoption, what condition applies to appointing a guardian for a married female minor, what bars a decree of nullity where consent was obtained by fraud. The eighth asks when an application for declaration of legal heirs is forwarded to the Registrar General under the Uttarakhand rules.
The question we have filed in the wrong place
AIBE XVIII, in 2023, asked this:
What is the meaning of the batil marriage in Muslim Law?
That is a family law question. Our classifier put it in our contract law bucket, and we did not catch it until we read the stems back. So our family law count is one light on that paper: AIBE XVIII should read 8 rather than 7, the newest five should read 36 rather than 35, all 19 papers should read 123 rather than 122, and the newest five average 7.2 rather than 7.0.
We are leaving the tables as counted and telling you about the error instead of quietly patching a number, because you should know how far one misfile moves a count. It moves this one by 0.2 of a question.
It also settles something worth more than the arithmetic. Muslim personal law is asked, in a real paper, in 2023. A revision plan covering Hindu law and the Special Marriage Act and nothing else is not covering this subject.
What to revise, and what to skip
Revise the marriage statutes as a set, not Hindu law as a subject. The Special Marriage Act, the Christian Marriage Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act and Muslim personal law have all been asked since 2023, and so have adoption and guardianship. Seven questions over that much ground means you cannot afford depth anywhere.
Learn the printed numbers. Durations, maximum fines, time limits, the hours in which a marriage may be solemnized. Half the recent stems want exactly that, and those are the marks a clean statute on your desk turns into points.
Read the new law. A 2025 set of rules was examined in a 2026 paper. What is enacted before 29 November 2026 is not off limits just because it is not in your class notes.
What to skip: deep case law here. None of the eight recent stems names a judgment. They name statutes and ask what is in them.
Also skip the oldest papers as a gauge. The seven oldest average 4.3 family law questions and the exam you are sitting asks close to 7. Those papers will under-prepare you and then tell you that you are ready.
Does this subject earn space in your bag
Partly. This is a judgement, not a Bar Council instruction.
Eight marks is a real allocation and half the questions are lookups, which argues for carrying books. Against it: the marks are spread across seven or more statutes, and you cannot carry seven for eight marks when the Civil Procedure Code alone is worth 10.
What we would do. Carry the Special Marriage Act, 1954 if you carry anything here, because it is the one statute in both of the newest papers. A clean combined volume of family and marriage laws covers most of the ground at one book's weight. Accept that a question or two will come from a statute you do not have, and answer those anyway: the AIBE XXI question booklet states in as many words that "There is no negative marking." A blank is a guaranteed nought. A guess is not.
One caution about the copy you carry. The Bar Council's Examination Guidelines say candidates may carry "only BARE ACTS (without notes and comments)", and possession of anything else in the hall is a stated risk, not just using it. Combined family law volumes are often sold with commentary or case notes, which is exactly the kind of book that clause describes, so check yours before you pack it. The carry in rules are written 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. The Bar Council does not publish one, and the misfile above is proof that ours is made by people. Border calls are judgements.
- One set per edition. Each AIBE paper is printed in four sets, A to D. We hold one per edition, mostly Set A, and cannot show what the others ask.
- Eight stems is a sample. The list of laws, and every pattern in it, rests on eight questions from two papers. It proves nothing about the other 114.
- We do not say what any provision contains. We know which laws the papers name. What they say is in the Act, not in our count.
- Counts are not difficulty. Seven questions over seven statutes is harder to prepare than seven from one.
Where these facts come from
The syllabus row and the wording of the other rows are the Bar Council's own, quoted 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 carry in wording is from the Examination Guidelines for AIBE XXI, published 20 February 2026. The line about negative marking is printed on the first page of the AIBE XXI question booklet, Set A, for the exam of 7 June 2026.
The counts are ours, from 19 real AIBE past papers held on munotes, 1,900 questions in total, classified by us and counted on 23 September 2026. The quoted stems are reproduced exactly as printed: AIBE XXI questions 49 and 100, sat 7 June 2026, AIBE XX question 26, sat 30 November 2025, and AIBE XVIII question 54, sat in 2023. The other laws named come from AIBE XXI questions 33, 34, 60 and 71 and AIBE XX question 56. We have rounded nothing up, and every count can be checked by sitting the paper.
What to do next
The next exam is AIBE XXII on 29 November 2026. Registration closes on 27 October 2026.
The useful test here is not whether you know the Hindu Marriage Act. It is what you do when a question arrives under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 and you have never opened it: skip it, guess it, or spend four minutes on one mark.
Sit a full paper and watch yourself do it. 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. Lifetime access to all 19 is Rs 499, paid once.