New ethical guidelines for lawyers would be ready by the end of this year, Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman and solicitor general Gopal Subramanium told a number of papers, in contrast to earlier plans to have the rules adopted by October 2010.

Law minister Veerappa Moily admitted that the entry of foreign firms could be good for business if local lawyers were allowed to build capacity before an “onslaught from the rest of the world” and that he had seen 80 national law school graduates prosper at London firms, in a revealing interview with the Mint paper today, adding that the door was still open to transfer the Chennai writ petition against foreign firms to the Supreme Court.

Arguing that legal education should be taken away from the BCI, he denied that the Bar Council of India (BCI) should feel threatened by the Legal Practitioner’s Bill.

Update 18:20: Law minister Veerappa Moily has survived cabinet reshuffle and retained his post after intense but apparently unfounded media speculation that he would be ousted.

Exclusive: Only four out of 205 candidates have passed the latest Bombay Incorporated Law Society’s solicitors exam, with two first-timers clearing the cut-off marks. This is even lower than the 6 per cent who passed the previous two examination sessions.

The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has detained Bar Council of India (BCI) elected member Rajendra Singh Rana allegedly for taking bribes to accredit a Ghaziabad-based law college, reported the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Madras advocates have called for abstinence from court work today (10 December) to protest against the Legal Practitioner Bill 2010 citing the Advocate Act’s efficacy to deal with issues of client protection and regulation of the legal professions.

The law ministry may ask solicitor general and BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium to resign, to forestall a conflict of interest between the solicitor general and the ministry’s plans for legal education reform, reported the Indian Express.

Exclusive: The Delhi bar council held an emergency meeting yesterday, ruling on allegations by its youngest member Rajesh Mishra’ that he was assaulted by a pistol-armed group of lawyers, including elected Delhi bar council member […], following an altercation ostensibly over recognition of a local bar association.

The proposed Legal Services Board has elicited mixed reactions from legal practitioners on CNBC-TV18’s The Firm last week, with Rajiv Luthra noting that state bar councils do need tighter regulation in some manner, Lalit Bhasin and Karan Bhosale arguing that the existing regulators can already do the job and MP Bharucha predicting that it could facilitate the entry of foreign law firms.

The Companies Bill has missed the deadline for this year’s session of Parliament and may only be tabled early next year, reported PTI today. The bill, which aims to tighten corporate governance and increase the burden of independent directors against the background of the Satyam scandal, has faced l...

The law ministry has proposed a new statute that partly supplant the functions of the Bar Council of India (BCI) with a new super-regulator called the Legal Services Board that will oversee the regulation of legal practice, client service, legal education and make it obligatory for lawyers to provide free legal aid.

The Bombay High Court today approved an internal merger between Anil Ambani-owned group of companies Reliance Power (RPower) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) leading to RPower’s increase in net worth by over Rs 16,000 crore and an expanded shareholder base.

Khaitan & Co Kolkata senior partner N G Khaitan took over as president of the Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA) in New Delhi on 14 September, replacing Bharti Enterprises vice chairman Rajan Bharti Mittal. Ashwin Dani was elected as the senior vice president in place of Harsh C. Mariwala. Gov...

Indian lawyers wanting to qualify in England and Wales will now have to pay £3,430 (Rs 2.4 lakh) plus pay for travel to and accommodation in the UK for the first time, following Kaplan law school’s position as the sole provider of the new Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS), which is at least a four-fold increase on the fees under the old scheme.

The Law Ministry has issued two statements on behalf of the Bar Council of India (BCI) that the regulatory body “has decided not to permit foreign lawyers into India” but was subject to “rational scrutiny”, despite the BCI not having discussed the issue at the BCI’s three previous meets.

The Solicitors Regulations Authority (SRA) has not yet received the completed survey for India to be included in the England & Wales Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) but the Bar Council of India (BCI) assured it was an “urgent matter” and would be completed “as soon as possible”.

Following yesterday’s Bombay High Court victory against Vodafone and Hutchison in their potentially $2bn tax bill appeal, the Income Tax Department’s acting chairman Sudhir Chandra told the Business Standard : “[Income Tax] Department’s position stands vindicated. It is a clear cut case of deliberat...

The Bombay High Court has held that the Indian tax authorities were correct in assessing Vodafone for its Indian tax liability in the $11bn acquisition of Hutchison Essar.

Veerappa Moily is visiting Singapore from 8 and 9 September to meet with his local counterpart K Shanmugam and discuss both countries’ development of the legal sector, arbitration and mutual co-operation, according to Channel NewsAsia.

Indian qualified lawyers will currently not be able to apply to practise law in England and Wales under the new Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) since yesterday (1 September), due to an oversight by the Bar Council of India (BCI), said the countries’ Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).