Module 1 History of Legal Profession in India

1. Legal profession in India in ancient and medieval period

2. Changes underwent in Legal profession during British rule
3. Development of Legal Profession in India after Independence
4. Impact of globalization on legal profession in India

Background to Legal Profession in India-

Legal profession is such a profession which is interlinked in various ways with
multifarious activities of the society. During the course of maintaining such
relationship, the lawyer has to show his ability, capacity as well as sobriety in dealing
with the people. When a client comes to a lawyer with his problems, he gives a patient
hearing to him. He encourages him to give his full story and all his grievances, for it
is from his narrative that the lawyer becomes able to gather essential facts. Those
facts form the basis of his claim or defence. Having heard the complete story from the
client such events which he has omitted to mention but which must have occurred,
and having cross-examined him to ascertain the working of his mind, the lawyer is
able to separate the essential from the non-essential and the important from the non-
important facts. Being an officer of Court, the lawyer assists the Court in arriving at
correct conclusions in the cases before the Court.
The contribution of the lawyer is not confine to arriving at decisions of the cases. He
contributes his role in the maintenance of law and order in the society. They stand for
legal order which is one of the noblest functions in the society. The main object of
this profession is not to earn money but to help the individuals in restoring their rights
through Court of Law and thereby they help them to maintain law and order in the
society. The legal profession is an honourable profession and aims to decide the
reality or unreality of the interests of the litigants. It is not confined to normal
situations in the society but also to provide free legal aid to needy persons in all
situations including emergency so that people may have access to the Courts for
seeking justice. Indeed, legal profession is one of the two wheels on which the
administration of justice moves smoothly and properly alongwith the other wheel i.e.
the Court.
Legal Profession in India may be classified under following points.
1) Legal Profession before British Period- The institution of legal profession in
India dates back to ancient period of history. The King’s Court was the super most
Court of all Courts in his State. The Kings had legal advisors to assist him in
discharge of judicial functions. It was not an organised forum of lawyers as we
find today. The Muslim period of Indian history is also a witness to the fact that
the institution of lawyers was not organised those days, although there is mention
of a body of persons called Vakils, who represented their clients in the courts of
Kazis, Mufties and Maulvies. The Vakils were not at all paid regular fees rather
they were paid a fixed percentage of the amount of the valuation of the suits as
remuneration. The lawyers acted more as agents for their clients than as lawyers.
As such, there was not a happy position of lawyers in pre- British period of Indian
legal history.
2) Legal Profession during British Period-
a) Legal Profession under Mayor’s Court and Supreme Court of Judicature-
The Britishers came to India as traders with the East India Company.
Although it had occupied a large part of the country, they were least interested
in the organisation of legal profession. Before 1726, there was no uniformity
in the system of Courts of Britishers in India. But by passing of Charter of
1726, in each Presidency town, a Mayor’s Court was established with the
Mayor and 9 Alderman to administer justice to the people. The basis of their
decision was justice and equity. Thus lay men who were not well conversant
with English Law and procedure continued to be there to represent their clients
in Mayor’s Court and other inferior courts. Persons having no knowledge of
law were practising in the courts.
The Charter of 1753 replaced the Charter of 1726. This charter did not contain
sufficient provisions for legal training of legal practitioners although for the
purpose of improving legal profession in India, this Charter was framed but
could not prove successful. The passage of Regulating Act,1773 and the
Charter of 1774, was a landmark in the direction of legal profession in India.
Provisions were made for the establishment of a Supreme Court of Judicature
at Calcutta. The object was not only to establish a Supreme Court but also to
make reform law and procedure in Crown’s Court as well as Company’s
Court. The Act of 1773, authorised to establish Supreme Court with full power
 and authority to exercise and perform all civil, criminal, admiralty and
ecclesiastical jurisdiction and to form such rules of practice and of the
processes of the said court and to do all such other things as would be found
necessary for the administration of justice.
b) Legal Profession under Company’s Courts – After the battles of Plassey in
1757 and Buxar in 1764 the Company had acquired Diwani rights of the
whole provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. For administration of civil
justice, Mofussil Diwani Adalats were established in 1772. For Criminal
Judicature, Fauzdari Adalat was established. The language used in these courts
was Persian and basis of decisions in these courts was Muslim Law. Bengal
Regulation of 1793 authorised the Sadar Diwani Adalat to enrol qualified
persons to work as pleaders before this court as well as other courts of the
Company. The main characteristics were that for the first time Hindus and
Muslims could be enrolled as an advocate for legal practice. The pleaders
could act as arbitrators and could provide legal opinion to their clients. The
Legal Practitioners Act, 1853 mentioned, the barristers and attorneys of the
Supreme Courts were allowed to plead in any Court of Company. Indian Legal
Practitioners were not given access to Supreme Court for legal practice.
Thereafter, the Government of India Act, 1858 was passed under which the
British Crown took over the reins of administration of the Company’s
territories in India, and the existence of East India Company in India remained
a formal one, for its business purpose only.
c) Legal Profession under Indian High Courts Act, 1861- after the
establishment of High Courts, the jurisdictions of Supreme Court and sadar
courts were combined. All jurisdiction of Supreme Court such as civil,
criminal, admiralty etc. were vested in their respective High Courts. High
Courts would apply in its ordinary original civil jurisdiction the same laws and
the principles of equity, as were applied by the Supreme Court.
d) Legal Profession under Legal Practitioners Act,1879- This Act played an
important role in the consolidation of legal profession in India. The Vakils
who were enrolled were the persons who had obtained a degree in law from
any Indian or Foreign University besides fulfilling other requisite
qualifications. The Vakils were to be Barrister of Law, while the Pleader and
mukhtars were Indian lawyers. This Act was the first exhaustive code in
 respect of legal profession in India, which proved to be quite successful in
consolidating the law relating to legal profession in the country. Act started
legal practice in these courts in large scale, which proved very useful to the
litigants. Indian Bar Committee,1923 was constituted and it suggested that in
all High Courts, a single grade of legal practitioners should be appointed and
all the legal practitioners be called Advocates. Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926
was enacted. It eliminated the two grades of legal practitioners i.e. the Vakils
and the Pleaders and merged them in the class of advocates who were enrolled
and also in any other court of British India. This Act provided powers of
constituting one Bar Council for each High Court which was to regulate the
admission of advocates, to prescribe their qualifications and to inquire into
cases of misconduct. High Court could reprimand, suspend or remove any
advocate in case of professional or other misconduct.
3) Legal Profession after Independence
a) Legal Profession under All India Bar Committee,1951- Main features were
as below- i) Establishment of an All India Bar Council and a Common Roll Of
Advocates having right to practise in any part of the country and in any court
including the Supreme Court. ii) Integration of Bar Councils into a single class
of legal practitioners known as Advocates, iii) Prescription of a uniform
qualification for admission of persons as advocates, iv) The division of
advocates into senior and other advocates based on merit, v) The creation of
autonomous Bar Councils one for the whole of India and other councils one
each for every State.
b) Legal Profession under the Advocates Act, 1961- The Act was enacted to
amend the law relating to legal practitioners Act. This Act is an enactment
dealing with qualifications, enrolment, their admission and rights to practise
and disciplinary action for professional and other misconducts of advocates
and punishment to advocates for committing misconducts etc. It made
provisions for establishment of Bar Council of India and State Bar Council.
Impact of globalization on legal Profession in India:
With increasing trade and investments across borders, there is an imperative
need for all of us to understand the functioning of international institutions. At
the same time, our national legal system must offer a balanced response to the
rapidly changing socio-economic realities. We must also bear in mind that in
this age of the internet and frequent international travel judges, lawyers,
academicians and even law students from different countries have a lot of
opportunities to interact, collaborate and learn from each other’s experiences.
Access to foreign legal materials has become much easier on account of the
development of information and communication technology. Until a few years
ago, subscriptions to foreign law reports and law reviews were quite expensive
and hence beyond the reach of most judges, practitioners and educational
institutions. However, the growth of the internet and globalisation has
radically changed the picture. The decisions of most constitutional courts are
uploaded on freely accessible websites.
Electronic databases operated by prominent publishing houses have ensured
that judges, practitioners and law students all over the world can readily
browse through materials from several jurisdictions. Such easy access to
international and comparative materials has also been the key factor behind
the emergence of internationally competitive commercial law forms and Legal
Process Outsourcing (LPO) operations in India.
The present law has to deal with problems of diverse magnitudes and a student
of law and an Advocate has to be trained in professional skills to meet the
challenges of globalisation and universalisation of law. With the advent of
multinationals in India as anywhere else, the task of lawyers would be highly
technical and an imperative need would arise to have competent lawyers who
would be trained in the right culture of Legal Education. Legal Education
should also prepare lawyers to meet the new challenges of working in a
globalised knowledge economy in which the nature and organisation of law
and legal practice are undergoing a paradigm shift.
Globalisation has also increased the mobility of lawyers with the right legal
skills and experience. Many lawyers are practicing in offshore law firms in the
major financial centres of the world. Within India too, domestic lawyers can
move to law firms located here and litigation lawyers can move sideways to
non-litigation work or arbitration. Many senior advocates have been devoting
more time to arbitration practice especially to international arbitration. The
establishment of the joint law ventures and law alliances has given greater
scope for bright young lawyers to take advantage of the benefits of an
integrated offshore law and onshore law practice, in remuneration and
acquisition of legal skills and experience in legal work.
The role of lawyers in the old days involved compassion for client’s entire
predicament and also a measure of concern for the public good. But now
advocates are changing their ways. The old days of complete honesty with the
courts and honour in dealing with each other has given way to more ruthless
efforts to win cases because larger profits which hang upon them, essential to
the lawyer’s “business”. The work satisfaction, which attended much legal
practice in the past, has been replaced “by a strictly commercial and
entrepreneurial approach to the practice of law.”
The challenge before the legal profession today is to resolve the basic
paradoxes, which it faces to adapt to changing social values and revolutionary
technology, to reorganise itself in such a way as to provide more effective, real
and affordable access to legal advice and representation by ordinary citizens,
to preserve and where necessary to defend the best of old rules requiring
honesty, loyalty, diligence, competence in the service of clients above mere
self-interest and specifically commercial self-advantage, to adopt to the
growth and changing composition of our society and of its legal profession
and to mould itself to the fast changing content and complexity of substantive
and procedural law.