The Indian government has no plans to allow foreign law firms to practise in the country, it said in a statement on Monday.

Veerappa Moily, minister of law and justice, said in response to a question in the Indian parliament that ‘at present there is no proposal to allow foreign law firms into the country’.

Earlier this year, Moily told The Financial Express that there was ‘no question’ of allowing the UK to bulldoze the country’s more than two million lawyers into accepting foreign competition overnight. On the same day, the president of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) told national newspaper The Hindu that both SILF and the Bar Council of India were ‘totally and unequivocally opposed’ to the entry of foreign law firms from overseas.

In December, a Mumbai High Court ruling confirmed that legal advice outside litigation practice is covered by the ban on foreign lawyers set down in the 1961 Advocates Act.

A statement on the Indian government’s website read: ‘Dr M Veerappa Moily, minister of law and justice, in the Lok Sabha in a written reply that under section 7 of the Advocates Act 1961, the Bar Council of India is responsible to lay down standards of professional conduct and etiquette for advocates; to safeguard the right, privileges and interests of advocates; to recognise on a reciprocal basis foreign qualification in law obtained outside India for the purpose of admission advocate and to manage; to exercise general supervision and control over state bar councils and invest the funds of the Bar Council.

‘The Bar Council of India, under section 47(2) of the said act, on a reciprocal basis may prescribe the conditions, if any, subject to which foreign qualifications in law obtained by persons other than citizens of India shall be recognized for the purpose of admission as an advocate under this act. The minister further informed the house that at present there is no proposal to allow foreign law firms into the country.’

A number of UK firms have set up alliance or ‘best friend’ offices in India over the last few years.