Law practitioners in India are called Advocates. An Advocate is one who has obtained a Bachelors of Law (LL.B.) degree and is admitted to the Bar in any state in India. State Bars, commonly referred as Bar Councils, do not conduct entrance examinations, and LL.B. degree holders can obtain admission to the Bar Council of the state in which they desire to practise law, immediately on obtaining the LL.B. degree.
On admission to a Bar Council, an Advocate can practice in all courts in India, except the Supreme Court. To practise in the Supreme Court of India, an Advocate has to take a separate admission examination.
In Mumbai (Bombay), the British solicitor-barrister system is in vogue.
To become a solicitor, a candidate has to complete three years of clerkship with a senior solicitor registered with the Bombay Incorporated Law Society and then pass the solicitor's examination conducted by the Bombay Incorporated Law Society. Solicitors registered with the Bombay Incorporated Law Society are recognised by the Supreme Court of India.
Clients in Mumbai (Bombay) prefer to deal with solicitors, and many firms do not allow non-solicitors to become partners.
Law firms in India are relatively small in size.
Under India's Companies Act, 1956, a partnership in India cannot have more than twenty partners. Except for a handful of firms in India, most law firms are small-sized family firms having two to five partners and between ten to thirty attorneys. In the larger firms also, it is rare to find specialists. Thus, when dealing with Indian lawyers, the abilities and time constraints of the individual lawyer should be given higher importance than the size of the firm.
English is the official language in India, and all legal contracts are drafted in English. However, in smaller towns, contracts and court proceedings are drafted and conducted in the regional language.
Companies doing business in India should note that Indian lawyers are not required to carry malpractice insurance. Therefore, lawyers should be chosen carefully.
The Indian Judiciary is partly a continuation of the British legal system established by the English in the mid-19th century based on a typical hybrid legal system known as the Common Law System, in which customs, precedents and legislative are all components of the law. The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of the country. There are various levels of judiciary in India different types of courts, each with varying powers depending on the tier and jurisdiction bestowed upon them. They form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, with the Supreme Court of India at the top, followed by High Courts of respective states with district judges sitting in District Courts and Magistrates of Second Class and Civil Judge (Junior Division) at the bottom. Courts hear criminal and civil cases, including disputes between individuals and the government. The Indian judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative branches of government according to the Constitution.
Supreme Court of India
On 28 January 1950, two days after India's constitution came into force, the Supreme Court of India was founded in Delhi. The inauguration took place in the Princes Chamber in the Parliament building complex which also housed both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, also known as the Council of States and the House of the People, respectively. It was here, in this Chamber of Princes, that the Federal Court of India had sat for 12 years between 1937 and 1950. This was to be the home of the Supreme Court for years that were to follow its creation, until the Supreme Court of India acquired its own building in 1958. The inaugural proceedings were simple, but impressive. They began at 9.45 am when the Judges of the Federal Court Chief Justice HJ Kania and Justices Saiyid Fazl Ali, M. Patanjali Sastri, Mehr Chand Mahajan, Bijan Kumar Mukherjea and Sudhi Ranjan Das took their seats. In attendance were the chief justices of the high courts of Allahabad, Bombay, Madras, Orissa, Assam, Nagpur, Punjab, Saurashtra, Patiala and the East Punjab States Union, Mysore, Hyderabad, Madhya Bharat and Travancore-Cochin. Along with the Attorney General for India, Pankaj Singh Kushwah were present the advocates general of Bombay, Madras, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, East Punjab, Orissa, Mysore, Hyderabad and Madhya Bharat. Present too, were prime minister, other ministers, ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of foreign states, a large number of Senior and other Advocates of the Court and other distinguished visitors.Taking care to ensure that the Rules of the Supreme Court were published and the names of all the Advocates and agents of the Federal Court were brought on the rolls of the Supreme Court, the inaugural proceedings were over and put under part of the record of the Supreme Court.
After its inauguration on 28 January 1950, the Supreme Court commenced its sittings in a part of the Parliament House. The Court moved into the present building in 1958. The building is shaped to project the image of scales of justice. The Central Wing of the building is the Centre Beam of the Scales. In 1979, two New Wings the East Wing and the West Wing were added to the complex. In all there are 15 Court Rooms in the various wings of the building. The Chief Justice's Court is the largest of the Courts located in the Centre of the Central Wing.
The original Constitution of 1950 envisaged a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 puisne Judges leaving it to Parliament to increase this number. In the early years, all the Judges of the Supreme Court sat together to hear the cases presented before them. As the work of the Court increased and arrears of cases began to accumulate, Parliament increased the number of Judges from 8 in 1950 to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1978 and 26 in 1986. As the number of the Judges has increased, they sit in smaller Benches of two and three coming together in larger Benches of 5 and more only when required to do so or to settle a difference of opinion or controversy.
