Use alternative dispute resolution mechanism: Prabhu

Prabhu conveyed the message through video conferencing at the Bar Leadership Summit held here recently. The agenda of the Summit, organised by Indian National Bar Association (INBA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL) and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, was ‘Reforms in the Indian Legal Sector’. 

The Summit explored issues and concerns surrounding the liberalisation of the Indian legal services sector. “The Summit on the whole agreed on the need to reform the legal sector to align itself with the new global realities in the profession,” the Ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

Minister of State for Human Resource Development (Higher Education) Satya Pal Singh, in his inaugural address, stressed on the importance of law as an enabler of justice and spoke on the importance of the impartiality and neutrality of the judicial system in India. He noted that the justice system should focus on the difficulties faced by victims in particular.

Secretary General of INBA Kaviraj Singh highlighted the dramatic changes that have taken place within the legal sector in India in the last two decades and identified the three major areas which need focus - conduct of arbitration in India, reforms in the Indian legal regulatory sector and liberalisation of legal services. 

Law Secretary Suresh Chandra said India has huge potential to increase the size of the legal market, which is around $9 billion at present. He suggested that reforms in this sector could tie in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda of ‘reform, transform and perform’. 

Additional Economic Adviser, Department of Commerce, Sangeeta Saxena, highlighted the need for diversification of services exports and the particular importance of the legal services sector in boosting India’s overall performance in services.

President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) RS Suri noted that the “gulf of understanding between the Bar Council of India, State Bar Councils and the government needs to be bridged” and that frequent consultations and deliberations are needed in reforming this important sector.