The Indian Economic Times reports that India’s Law Minister is keeping himself busy with more proposals .. to make up for some of the defeats he’s recently suffered at the hands of vested powers within the Indian legal community..
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As the magazine so succinctly says… With the entry of foreign law firms appearing to have been put on the backburner , law minister Veerappa Moily is now focusing? on ?upgrading? legal education. He has proposed to set up four ?institutes of excellence? in the country.
The report goes on to say..
Mr Moily, who had established the National Law School University, the country?s leading law institute, said when the four regional hubs would produce worldclass lawyers, the question of the entry of foreign law firms might become irrelevant.
Mr Moily has already approached the Planning Commission for its approval. ?It will create a new legal world. It will create a competitive edge in legal education,? Mr Moily said. He said this was also a recommendation of the Knowledge Commission.
Citing the success story of Indian IT professionals , he said it could be emulated in the legal field. ?Why not we upgrade our law schools. Look at IT education in Karnataka . We will experiment to get the same results in law as well.?
On the proposal to allow foreign lawyers to practice in India, Mr Moily said he needed to discuss it with the domestic fraternity. The Indian lawyers have been resisting any move to allow foreign law firms to operate in the country.
This had recently been conveyed by Mr Moily to visiting British Parliamentary under secretary of state for justice Lord William Bach. Mr Moily told him that the government could not move further on the issue given the views of the Indian law firms.
The Advocates Act, 1961, which prohibits non-Indian lawyers from practicing in the country, is still in place and an amendment was required for foreign lawyers to work in India. International law firms have been banned from practicing in India since a 1995 ruling by the Bombay high court.
Mr Moily?s predecessor H R Bhardwaj had asked Indian lawyers to stop opposing the entry of overseas firms assuring them that it will create ?thousands? of legal jobs.
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and he doesn’t stop here.. whilst in Mangalore this week he also spoke about creating a commercial court system in India and re-engineering legislation so that India becomes a major arbitration centre in the next decade..
The Times of India reports
Moily moots bench for high-value commercial cases
Laws for our times and laws for `aam aadmi’. That was Union minister of law and justice M Veerappa Moily’s mantra at an interactive
meeting at the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Mangalore on Wednesday. This will result in the setting up of commercial courts — a specially constituted bench in all the high courts in a phased manner to deal with high-value cases worth over Rs 2 crore.
For the `aam aadmi’, especially farmers, Moily intends to bring before Parliament in the winter session, an amendment to Land Acquisition Act of 1894. This amendment, which came up before the Lok Sabha but was passed by the Rajya Sabha, has lapsed. He said the only way forward is to reintroduce the Bill and ensure that farmers’ interests are protected while setting up SEZs in India.
Moily is also keen on amending the Arbitration Act. “India is the least preferred destination for international arbitration,” Moily said in his talk on `Legislative Stimulus to Commerce and Industry’. Big disputes have been pending for years in India, and there are not many takers for arbitration here.
While Paris is the world’s most preferred arbitration destination, Singapore is second and Hong Kong third. An amendment to the Arbitration Act will ensure that India becomes the preferred destination in the next five years, and this will unlock vast amounts of wealth.
