Hinduja TMT’s (HTMT) announcement to establish a legal process outsourcing (LPO) unit in India has triggered off a controversy: can these companies advertise and put their website on the Internet, is the business legal? The debate hinges around what comprises the practice of law.

The company has officially said it would advertise and host its website to cater to overseas clients particularly in US and UK. But Bar Council of India (BCI) is against this practice of publicising legal services in India.

Since BCI cannot take any action against a company or firm, it is doing spadework to take action against law graduates and advocates working for LPOs. BCI claims nobody can practise law in Indian territory except ‘Advocates’ as per Section 29 of Advocates Act 1961.

BCI chairman Jaganath Patnaik is taking up this matter in the council’s general house meeting (GHM) next month. The Council’s stand is clear: practising law includes representing a client in court, presenting or submitting documents in court, processing a legal document and providing legal consultancy.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Patnaik said, “Even for providing legal consultancy to foreign clients, enrolment with Bar Council is required. We’ll take up the matter of advertisement and hosting websites by LPOs in our GHM. We can take action against individual professionals working for such firms.”

HTMT global chief financial officer Yagnesh Sanghrajka doesn’t agree. “We don’t come under the purview of BCI,” he said. “We will hire Indian law graduates. But those law graduates needn’t follow the BCI professional code. We will make sure no graduate is enrolled with BCI. Those who are, will be asked to cancel their enrolment before joining our LPO.”

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