Liberalisation of India’s mammoth legal market appears more distant than ever, as regulators prepare to tighten rules on foreign lawyers and firms operating in the country.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has issued draft amendments to the country’s Advocates Act which it says will ‘protect Indian advocates, strengthen the organised bar and create new opportunities for the legal profession’.
They include requiring registration of law firms, codifying restrictions on foreign lawyers and firms, and banning foreigners from enrolling as Indian advocates.
The Bar Council proposes that the updated legislation should expressly state that foreign lawyers and firms are banned from appearing before Indian courts, practising Indian law and undertaking litigation. The only exception would be appearing before an arbitral tribunal. The BCI says this is because India is ‘lagging far behind’ Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries as a hub for international arbitration.
The new amendments appear to constitute a retreat on amendments to Bar Council regulations published last year that would, for the first time, have permitted foreign lawyers and law firms to practise in India under specific conditions.
Earlier this year the government insisted that legal services would form part of future trade talks with India, amid criticism that the sector had been sidelined. Last year’s UK-India free trade agreement made no mention of legal services.
Opening up India’s legal market to foreign lawyers and firms has been talked about for years but little progress has been made. In its new draft rules, the BCI declares that it ‘is not going to do anything which could hamper/adversely affect the interests of our Indian law firms in any manner’, adding: ‘The doors of India would only be opened up for foreign law firms in a phased manner – ie in a way which could suit the Indian law firms’.
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