`No proposal to allow foreign lawyers to practise'

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, AUG. 11. The Union Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, said today there was no proposal before the Government to permit foreign lawyers to practise in the country.

Speaking after inaugurating a national seminar on ``Standards of professional conduct and etiquette rules vis-a-vis advertisement in legal profession information technology'' organised by the Karnataka State Bar Council, Mr. Jaitley said the Government had not permitted foreign lawyers to practise in India ``nor was there any such proposal before us.''

On lawyers' entitlement to advertise, Mr. Jaitley said there was a need for a national debate on the issue and it was for the Bar Council of India to take a final decision.

He, however, said that some solution had to be found as information technology had revolutionised all areas of knowledge and profession in the country.

Mr. Jaitley said the profession of lawyers was considered a service and lawyers had been educated in the past in such a way that they considered their profession as one to assist the administration of justice. Advertising was considered as a misconduct. But this concept had changed with rapid changes in other professions.

He said: ``There is an increasing element of competition and trend towards commercialisation of legal profession. This has come to stay and it is a hard reality. The territorial restriction on law practice was also cracking down.''

He said there was a need to evolve some solution, while at the same time recognising the principle that the legal practice was neither a trade nor a business, but an instrument to enable the administration of justice.

Mr. D.V. Subba Rao, Chairman of the Bar Council of India, said the council had an open mind on the issue and called for a national debate on it. While allowing lawyers to advertise themselves, there had to be some restriction, a ``Lakshman Reka on how far to go.''

Mr. Rao said any form of advertising by lawyers was considered unethical as the profession was regarded as a noble one, but things had changed lately. At present, the council was eliciting views on the issue and once the exercise was over, it would take a ``dispassionate view'' on the matter, he said.

The Karnataka Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr.D.B. Chandre Gowda, lauded the efforts of the Karnataka State Bar Council for initiating a debate on the issue.

Mr. K.K. Venugopal, senior advocate from New Delhi, delivered the keynote address. Mr. Jayakumar S. Patil, Chairman of the Karnataka State Bar Council, and Mr.R. Abdul Reyaz Khan, Vice- Chairman of the council, spoke.

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