Change Afoot Within India's Law Ministry
Opinion appears to be divided as to whether the unexpected dropping of H R Bhardwaj, from the post of India’s Law Minister, in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new Cabinet, will have a detrimental impact on the pace of liberalization reform for India’s legal profession. In Legally India.com’s coverage, one Delhi lawyer, discussing the likely pace of change had Bhardwaj been invited into the new cabinet, commented:
"If he had come in, we would probably be looking at a December opening."
The dichotomy of views was highlighted by Mulla & Mulla & Blunt & Caroe partner, Shardul Thacker:
"This change will not in any manner hamper the legal liberalization of entry of foreign law firms."
According to Legally India.com, Bhardwaj’s replacement, Veerappa Moily is something of an unknown quantity. With the caveat that I am simply an interested observer, and a million miles away from being an expert on the issue, from a personal perspective, bar the recent passing of the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, little progress has been made over the course of the last decade. I discuss the LLP Act’s passing in my earlier blog piece, LPO and India News Roundup.
Perhaps a fresh face is just what the doctor (or should I say lawyer?) ordered. Liberalization of India’s legal profession has been tantalizingly just around the corner now for approaching a decade. I first covered the issue in July 2007, in my blog piece Liberalization of India’s legal services market and the impact on the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry. The UK Law Society, however, carried a piece back as far back as 2001 entitled, “India may open the door to foreign practices under licensing agreement”.
"If he had come in, we would probably be looking at a December opening."
The dichotomy of views was highlighted by Mulla & Mulla & Blunt & Caroe partner, Shardul Thacker:
"This change will not in any manner hamper the legal liberalization of entry of foreign law firms."
According to Legally India.com, Bhardwaj’s replacement, Veerappa Moily is something of an unknown quantity. With the caveat that I am simply an interested observer, and a million miles away from being an expert on the issue, from a personal perspective, bar the recent passing of the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, little progress has been made over the course of the last decade. I discuss the LLP Act’s passing in my earlier blog piece, LPO and India News Roundup.
Perhaps a fresh face is just what the doctor (or should I say lawyer?) ordered. Liberalization of India’s legal profession has been tantalizingly just around the corner now for approaching a decade. I first covered the issue in July 2007, in my blog piece Liberalization of India’s legal services market and the impact on the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry. The UK Law Society, however, carried a piece back as far back as 2001 entitled, “India may open the door to foreign practices under licensing agreement”.
posted by Mark Ross at
5:15 AM
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2 Comments:
Mark, don't worry about appointment of Moily as new Law Minister. He is a vastly experienced politician who was also a partner in a law firm once. He is also credited with helping in opening the leading National Law School at Bangalore. Ministry is in safe hands.
Moily was the chief minister of the state of Karnataka where Bangalore is located. His son seems to have spent time in outsourcing (not really sure). Point: He is no stranger to outsourcing.
He has the reputation for being an astute politician, who does his homework the last detail.
In Karnataka, he also pioneered an entrance examination (CET) for technical education which went on to became a model for other states as well. He gets some credit for streamlining admission process to engineering colleges.
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