Women Representation, Increase In Enrolment Fee, Bar On Foreign Law Firms: BCI Proposes Amendments To Advocates Act; Seeks Suggestions
The Bar Council of India has prepared a draft proposing amendments to the Advocates Act, made in consultation with the State Bar Councils, reputed Senior Advocates practising in the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts and District Courts, Vice-Chancellors, Deans of Law Universities of the Ministry of Law and Justice and other stakeholders.In a press note issued by the bar body, the...
The Bar Council of India has prepared a draft proposing amendments to the Advocates Act, made in consultation with the State Bar Councils, reputed Senior Advocates practising in the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts and District Courts, Vice-Chancellors, Deans of Law Universities of the Ministry of Law and Justice and other stakeholders.
In a press note issued by the bar body, the BCI has called for suggestions from all stakeholders, including the State Bar Councils, Bar Associations, Law Universities, Centres of Legal Education and Law Firms, with a view to inviting their valuable suggestions and inputs.
"All suggestions received within the prescribed period shall be duly examined and, wherever considered necessary and appropriate, incorporated in the Draft and the Ministry will be requested accordingly," the press note states. Stakeholders have been asked to furnish suggestions by July 31 3:00pm at draftadvact2026bill@gmail.com.
Foreign Lawyers/Firms not entitled to practice/appear in Indian courts
Under the Advocates Act, advocates enrolled on a State roll constitute the recognised class of persons entitled to practise law. Sections 29, 30 and 33 protect the right of enrolled advocates to practise before courts, tribunals, authorities and other persons before whom the law permits an advocate to appear.
The draft preserves this protection wherein proposed Section 47 expressly states that the "permitted area of practice of a foreign lawyer or foreign law firm shall not include practice before any court, authority or person before whom only an advocate is entitled to practise under section 33 of the Advocates Act".
Thus a foreign lawyer or foreign law firm will, therefore, not be entitled to:
i. appear before the Supreme Court of India
ii. appear before any High Court
iii. appear before District or Taluka courts
iv. undertake Indian litigation
v. practise Indian law before any court, tribunals or statutory authorities
vi. claim the rights of an advocate enrolled under the Advocates Act merely because of a foreign qualification or foreign professional registration
Thus the courts of India, the practice of Indian law and the statutory professional rights of Indian advocates remain protected. The only specifically stated exception concerns appearance before an arbitral tribunal in an international commercial arbitration where the substantive law governing the dispute is foreign law.
It further states that registration under the proposed foreign-law framework will not make such a person an advocate enrolled on a State roll in India.
The draft further proposes that the rules governing foreign lawyers and foreign law firms must be framed with the prior approval of the Central Government. This is because only the Central Government could know about the relationship of India with any particular foreign country.
Other Key features:
1. The Draft Amendments Bill of 2025, contained provision for heavy punishment or disciplinary proceedings for strikes; those provisions have been removed from present Draft/Proposal. Provision for imposition of heavy fine (5 Lakhs) on Advocates involved in serious cases of disciplinary matters has been removed.
2. Inclusion of welfare schemes like Insurance for Advocates & their families, medi-claims, pension, provisions for indigent and stipend for young lawyers by creating funds through State Bar Councils.
3. 25-member Legal Education Committee with representation from BCI, former Judges of the Supreme Court, sitting or former Chief Justices of High Courts, the Attorney General for India, the Solicitor General of India etc.; the present committee consists of 10 members
4. State Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India to provide professional development programmes for advocates.
5. Increase in women representation
i. For State Bar Councils with electorates exceeding 10,000, the proposed strength is 33 members. 30 members would be elected, including 4 women, and 3 additional women advocates would be co-opted by Bar Council of India in consultation with concerned State Bar Councils and Bar Associations.
ii. For State Bar Councils with electorates exceeding 5,000 but not exceeding 10,000, the proposed strength is 21 members. 19 members would be elected, including 3 women, and 2 additional women advocates would be co-opted in similar manner.
iii. For State Bar Councils with electorates exceeding 10,000, the proposed strength is 33 members. 30 members would be elected, including 4 women, and 3 additional women advocates would be co-opted in a similar manner.
6. Proposal to strengthen Indian Law Firms and to encourage the Advocates at the State, District and Taluka Level to form and register Law Firms. Indian law firms would receive express recognition under the Advocates Act as institutions through which advocates practise collectively.
7. Enrolment fee of Rs.18,000 payable to the State Bar Council and Rs.4,500 payable to the Bar Council of India; total Rs. 22,500/-
"The statutory fee presently contained in the Advocates Act was fixed several decades ago (in the year 1993) and does not reflect the present scale of institutional responsibilities connected with enrolment, " BCI states adding that the fee will take care of processing of enrolment applications, verification of educational qualifications, verification of identity and eligibility among others.
8. Notably, legal practitioner in present draft is defined as an "advocate practising before any Court, tribunal and quasi-judicial body or any law graduate enrolled with the state bar council, employed in government or any government organisation for rendering legal advice, and performs such other legal work pertaining to litigation and drafting of laws and legal documents".
This, does not include in-house lawyers who were included the Draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
As per this, Section 2(i) which defines who a legal practitioner includes "any Advocate or law graduate engaged in the practice of law before courts, tribunals or quasi-judicial forums or doing legal work in any private or public organization including but not limited to statutory and autonomous bodies, domestic and foreign law firms and corporate entities."