Foreign lawyers to meet BCI rules to practice in India: HC

The Madras High Court today said foreign law firms or lawyers cannot practice in India unless they met the requirements of the Advocates Act and Bar Council of India Rules.

"Foreign law firms or foreign lawyers cannot practice profession of law in India either on litigation or non- litigation side unless they fulfil the requirement of the Advocates Act 1961 and Bar Council of India Rules," it said. The observations were made by a bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam while disposing of a petition filed by advocate A K Balaji.

It pointed out that the Act or BCI rules did not bar foreign law firms or foreign lawyers from visiting the country for a temporary period on a 'fly in and fly out' basis for giving legal advice to their clients in India regarding foreign law or their own respective system of law and on diverse international legal issues.

The petitioner had moved the court for a direction to the Centre and BCI to take appropriate action against foreign law firms and lawyers who were "illegally" practising law in the country and to forbear them from doing so. He submitted that the Advocates Act stipulated that a foreigner could be admitted as an advocate if his allowed Indian nationals to practise law there.

Foreign law firms should not be allowed to exploit the Indian legal market without actually opening up their domestic markets to Indian lawyers, he contended. Over 30 foreign law firms, cited as respondents, 'are glaringly advertising through their web sites about their capabilities and soliciting work by assuring results', the petitioner said. The allegations were, however, refuted by most of the respondents many of whom have offices in India.