With the passing of recent interim order by the
Supreme Court of India, foreign
law firms, LPOs and chartered accountant (CA)/whole time company
secretary (CS) firms cannot provide legal services in India
anymore.
Now only advocates enrolled as per the provisions of
Advocates Act, 1961 can engage in litigation and non litigation
related services in India. This includes consultancy, opinion giving,
drafting of agreement and their vetting, litigation in courts, etc.
As a natural corollary, those who are not entitled
to practice law in India in any of its form and still providing legal
services would be doing the same illegally. It is also possible that
suitable legal actions can be taken against such persons.
Further, the legal sanctity of such illegal legal
services may also be doubtful. Legal service seekers must ensure that
those professionals providing litigation and non litigation related
services in India are enrolled with the Bar Council of India/State
and not engaged in other part time/whole time employment.
Further, whole time practicing CAs and CS cannot
practice law and this judgement equally affects them as well.
This also means that foreign law firms and LPOs
cannot practice either litigation or non litigation related issues in
India anymore. This also means that Indian
LPO service providers like Perry4Law
would witness an enhanced role in the LPO segment of India.
Let us see how things would take a shape from here.
