Legal profession after

Independence
History II
Review of material covered in last class
• Who practised law before 1773 Regulating Act
and where did they derive their knowledge from?
• How did the Regulating Act 1773 alter scenario?
• Who were entitled to appear before the Supreme
Court?
• How did norms of British legal profession get
firmly entrenched in Indian system by the end of
18th Century?
Review of material covered in last class
• Who introduced for the first time regular legal
profession in the Company’s Courts? Which court
had the power to enrol pleaders? Who were eligible
to become pleaders? How did it improve situation?
• How did Bengal Regulation XII of 1833 alter the
situation?
• What are the innovations brought about by the
Legal Practitioners Act, 1846? And by the Legal
Practitioners Act, 1863?
Review of material covered in last class

• What changes were brought out by the Indian

High Courts Act, 1861?
• Legal Practitioners Act, 1879?
• The Indian Bar Committee, 1923 [Chamier
Committee]
• The Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926
 All-India Bar Committee 1951
• The Bar was not satisfied with the passing of
the Bar Council Act, 1926 as it did not bring
the Pleaders, Mukhtars and Revenue agents
practising in the Moffusil Courts and revenue
offices under its scope.
• Powers conferred on Bar Councils were
limited; they were neither autonomous nor
had any substantial authority.
Critique of Indian Bar Council Act, 1926
• It did not achieve what was desired. The Bar Councils
were simply advisory bodies and the real powers vested
in the High Courts. Even the rules passed by the
Councils required approval of the High Courts. The
distinction between the advocates on original side and
other advocates in Calcutta and Bombay HCs was left
undisturbed by this Act. Nor did it make any provision
with respect to legal practitioner in subordinate courts.
Even the right of an advocate of one HC to appear in
another HC was subject to rules of High Court.
• Dissatisfaction with this kind of arrangement
continued to mount among the legal practitioners.
They got a new stimulus with the establishment of
the Supreme Court in 1950.
• The Supreme Court Advocates [Practice in High
Courts] Act, 1951 gave a right to every advocate of
the SC to practice in any HC. But this was not
enough. Lawyer community wanted a unified
autonomous bar with no class distinctions among
lawyers.
 All-India Bar Committee 1951
• Monopoly of the British barristers on the original
sides of Calcutta and Bombay High Courts and the
invidious distinction between barristers and non-
barristers
• With the advent of Independence, there was a
renewed call for an autonomous and unified all-India
Bar.
• In response to demands, GoI in 1951 appointed the
all-India Bar Committee under the Chairmanship of
Justice S.R. Das of the Supreme Court.
Recommendations of all-India Bar Committee

• Unification of the Bar providing for a common

roll of advocates who would be entitled to
practise in all courts in the country. Thus all
grades were done away with and one
integrated and autonomous all-India Bar was
formed.
 Recommendations towards
unified all-India Bar
• Each State Council should maintain a register of all existing
advocates entitled to practise in their respective High Courts.
• All Vakils and pleaders, entitled to practice in the district and
other subordinate courts, who are law graduates, should be
entitled to be included in the roll of advocates maintained by
the State Bar Council on payment of certain fees.
• Vakils and pleaders who are not law graduates but who,
under the existing rules, are entitled to be enrolled as
advocates, should also be entitled to be placed on that
register.
 Recommendations towards
unified all-India Bar
• The State Bar Councils should then send copies of such registers
to the all-India Bar Council who are to compile a common roll of
advocates in the order of seniority according to the original
enrollment of the advocates in their respective High Courts or
the Supreme Court if they are not enrolled in any High Court.
• New entrants possessing the required minimum qualifications
may also apply to a State Bar Council for enrolment and their
names should be forwarded by the State Bar Council to the all-
India Bar Council for being entered on the common roll.
• The Committee also recommended that there should be no
further recruitment of non-graduate pleaders or mukhtars.
 Recommendations towards
unified all-India Bar
• Requirement of leave for practising in any
other High Court u/s 4 of the Legal
Practitioners Act 1879 should not exist.
• It was best to let an advocate have the
freedom to practise in any court including the
SC irrespective of standing at the Bar.
• The Committee also recommended creation of
an all-India Bar Council and State Bar Councils.
 Recommendations towards
unified all-India Bar
• Subject to some safeguards, the Committee suggested
that in the interests of an autonomous national bar, the
power of enrolment, suspension and removal from the
Roll of Advocates be entirely vested in the Bar Councils.
• The Committee did not feel the need for a separate Bar
Council for the SC as every Advocate on the common roll
shall be entitled as of right to practise in the SC and
would be amenable to the jurisdiction of the
appropriate State Bar Council and of the all-India Bar
Council.
Gist of the recommendations of the All-India
Bar Committee 1951
• Creation of an all India Bar Council with common roll
of all advocates and also the Bar Councils for States
with larger autonomy. But it did not feel the need
for a separate Bar Council for the Supreme Court. It
justified the continuation of the distinction between
counsel and solicitors in Calcutta and Bombay and
recommended that all other classes of practitioners
be abolished and be put under one common
nomenclature of advocates, and that only law
graduates should be enrolled as advocates.
• The Law Commission in its Fourteenth report
on the `Reform of Judicial Administration’
[1958] endorsed many recommendations
made by the all-India Bar Committee, 1951.
 The Advocates Act, 1961
• In 1961, Parliament enacted the Advocates Act to
amend and consolidate the law relating to legal
practitioners and to provide for the constitution of
state Bar Councils and an All-India Bar Council. The
Act establishes an all-India Bar and a common roll
of Advocates. An advocate on the common rolls has
the right to practise in all Courts in India from the
highest to the lowest. The Bar has been integrated
into a single class of legal practitioners known as
Advocates.
 Functions of a State Bar Council
• The Act creates a State Bar Council in each State
and a Bar Council of India at the Centre. The
functions of a State Bar Council are inter alia – (a)
to admit persons as Advocates on its roll; (b) to
prepare and maintain such roll; © to entertain
and determine cases of misconduct against
advocates on its roll; (d) to safeguard the rights,
privileges and interests of advocates on its roll
and (e)to promote and support law reform.
 Functions of the Bar Council of India
• To prepare and maintain a common roll of
advocates
• To lay down standards of professional conduct
and etiquette for advocates
• To lay down the procedure to be followed by the
disciplinary committees of each State Bar Council
• To safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of
advocates.
• To promote and support law reform
 Functions of the Bar Council of India
• To exercise general supervision and control over State
Bar Councils and
• To promote legal education and to lay down standards
of such education in consultation with the universities
whose degree in law shall be a qualification for
enrolment of an advocate.
• Any advocate may, with his consent, be designated as
a Senior Advocate if the SC or a HC is of opinion that
by virtue of his ability, experience and standing at the
Bar, he deserves such distinction.
 Significance
• The Advocates Act, 1961 has marked the beginning of a
new era in the history of the legal profession by vesting
largely in the Bar Councils the power and jurisdiction
which the Courts till then exercised, by fulfilling the
aspirations of those who had been demanding an All-India
Bar and effecting a unification of the Bar in India, by the
creation of a single class of practitioners with power to
practise in all the Courts and bound by rules made and a
code of conduct laid down for their own bodies to which
the members could resort to for the protection of their
rights, interests and privileges.
LEGAL EDUCATION BEFORE
INDEPENDENCE
• The study of law was not a priority for
students.
• Mostly, those who could not get admissions in
other disciplines opted for law.
• Lack of good law professors; Advocates used to
teach on a part-time basis with obvious results
• The poor state of libraries
 LEGAL EDUCATION BEFORE
INDEPENDENCE
• The Indian legal education ….. emphasized rote
memory….. Professor Arthur von Mehren.
• Emphasis on information-delivery rather than
critical understanding - remained the goal of
legal education.
• Consequently, when India gained independence,
“its legal profession and legal teaching were thus
not able to play the role they ought, by Western
standards, to have played.”
 LEGAL EDUCATION AFTER
INDEPENDENCE
• Though reputed colleges existed in Mumbai, and
Delhi, an acute need was felt for a paradigm shift in
the quality of legal education.
• Establishment of National Law School of India
University (NLSIU) in Bangalore on August 29, 1987.
• A five year integrated BALLB course is taught in the
National Law School to those who have completed
12th standard – Paradigm shift towards greater
professionalization.
• Fourteen National Law Schools have been established
throughout India.
 Jindal Global Law School Experiment

• Admissions based on LSAT exam

• Multi-disciplinary environment [JGLS; JGBS;
JSIA and Jindal School of Govt. & Public Policy]
as opposed to single-discipline National Law
Schools, IIMs etc.
• Mix of foreign and Indian faculty and
conscious attempt to adopt new pedagogy
and emphasis on comparative perspectives.
 LEGAL EDUCATION AFTER
INDEPENDENCE
• The BCI visits and inspects Universities/Law colleges in the
country as part of its statutory function of promoting legal
education.
• It lays down standards in consultation with the Universities
in India and the State Bar Councils.
• Strict standards of quality are now being maintained.
• Recently BCI de-recognized thirty law colleges in India is an
example of the strict standards that are being followed.*
• Also, recognition and certification of these universities
under BCI is renewed every year after visits and inspections.
*Akshaya Mukul, 30 law colleges derecognized by Bar Council, September 17, 2010,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/30-law-colleges-derecognized-by-Bar-Council/articleshow/6568897.cms
ALL INDIA BAR EXAM INTRODUCED
• The Bar Council of India’s website declares,
“The first All India Bar Examination, to be conducted on December 5, 2010 is intended to test an
advocate’s ability to practice the profession of law in India. As this is the first time that this examination
will be conducted, it will assess capabilities at a basic level, and is intended to set a minimum standard for
admission to the practice of law; it addresses a candidate’s analytical abilities and basic knowledge of law.
The notification bringing the All India Bar Examination into force was passed by the Legal Education
Committee and the members of the Bar Council of India at duly constituted meetings on April 10, 2010
and April 30, 2010.”

• The need for a Bar Exam was felt to lay down strict
standards of entrance to The Bar. It was widely felt
that the quality of practicing lawyers was not as good
as it should be. This is a major step to maintain quality.
 FUTURE OF LEGAL PROFESSION
• India has the world’s second largest pool of
lawyers [6,00,000] today.
• Majority of the work is litigation based. Law as
a profession is called a ‘noble profession’
because this is the one profession that
empowers the practitioner of law
– to protect the rights of his fellow citizens,
– challenge policies and
– raise questions that would invoke serious thought
in the interpretation of law.
 FUTURE OF LEGAL PROFESSION
• Justice Krishna Iyer, “Law is not a trade, not
briefs, not merchandise, and so the heaven of
commercial competition should not vulgarize
the legal profession.”
• growing trend of commercialization??
 FUTURE OF LEGAL PROFESSION
• Only a few advocates in India take up causes
of the poor. But some of them do so as they
don’t have enough cases to deal with.
• On the other hand, other areas, such as
professional law firms are becoming a big
business in India.
 FUTURE OF LEGAL PROFESSION
• Another area of development is Legal Process
Outsourcing (LPO).
• This practice envisages a foreign law firm or a
corporation to get legal support from experts in
India. This business is set to grow.
• One major criticism faced by LPO’s is that there is
high potential of breach of client confidentiality as
people who are working in this industry are not
bound by the same ethical standards that the
attorneys are at their home country.
 CONCLUSION
• The legal profession therefore is getting
corporatized and the professionals are earning
unprecedented amounts of money.
• The challenge that remains is to keep the
sanctity of this profession alive, upholding the
soul and spirit of law.