NEW DELHI: The government is planning to open up India’s legal services for foreign firms and professionals and has set up a committee under the law ministry to examine the plan.
“I think we have already set up a committee with the law ministry to examine this issue in greater details,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday at an event organised by the Indo American Chamber of Commerce on “Leveraging Services Sector to Trigger Post–Covid -19 Economic Recovery”.
Responding to a question, Goyal added that any decision on this will be taken following consultation and would have adequate safeguards to protect local professionals. “Of course we can make sure that we provide adequate safeguards for the lawyers in the lower courts and the larger eco-system of the legal profession. We will certainly engage with you and other luminaries before we take any decision,” he added.
The opening of legal services to foreign firms will require certain amendments in the Advocate Act. Goyal also added that the government is formulating standards for the services sector so that the country can have high quality of services to offer to the rest of the world.
“In India, we are formulating standards for the services ecosystem so that we can have a very high quality of services which we offer to the rest of the world,” the minister said.