'Improvement needed in legal education'

LONDON: Indian government has taken a series of measures to improve the quality of legal education in the country to make it dynamic, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj has said.

"We feel that a lot of improvement needs to be done in the legal education to make it dynamic," Bhardwaj told a meet on UK-India Business Relationship here last night.

He said till 1985 there was only one law  school in Bangalore. But now Government has set up 23 new law schools in an effort to improve the quality of legal education.

"Almost in every state there is one National Law School and they are producing lawyers in large numbers," he said at the conference organised by the Indo-European Business Forum at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Besides, the central government had invested Rs 1000 crore for e-governance facilities in judiciary and in the next two years every court will have such facilities.

In an effort to deal with pending cases, the Minister said "mediation centres" have been set up to resolve disputes in every High courts. "Through mediation and conciliation, we are trying to resolve large number of cases."

Describing India as a land of opportunities, Bhardwaj said investors in India got good returns.

Citing an example of the automobile sector which had seen a proliferation, Bhardwaj said "the automobile sector has shown that any thing can be sold in India in a jiffy."

Lord Gordsmith, QC, ex-UK Attorney-General, said the rule of law and independence of judiciary in India is unparalleled and "strongly applauded Indian legal profession and judges."

In an obvious reference to Tata's takeover of Chorus and Jaguar and Land Rovers, Goldsmith said "some of the Indian names have become house hold names in the British society."

At the same time, he pointed out that "dispute resolution in India needs significant improvement."

Suggesting that India should open up the legal system, Goldsmith said "globalisation of law need to happen."

Alison Hook, Head of International Department at The Law Society of England and Wales criticised India for not allowing International law firms to practice in India.

"Indian lawyers are missing out a great deal the revolution taking place in the legal system in the world," she said.

Vijay Goel, Founder of the Indo-European Business Forum, said "EU-India trade has grown impressively over the years. Trade with the EU represents almost 20 per cent of India's exports and imports and the EU thus as a bloc is India's largest trading partner."

The EU is also India's largest source of foreign direct investment. However, India accounts for just 1.8 per cent of the total EU trade. India attracts only 1.3 per cent of the EU's world-wide investments.
    
"The economic cooperation has miles to go from here," Goel said.

Sharon Bamford, Chief Executive, UK-India Business Council, said in an effort to develop services and networking, the Council would open two offices in Mumbai and Delhi in September this year.

NRI entrepreneur Lord King of West Bromwich said "the Global Indians have a great role to play in the new environment when India is emerging as an economic power."

N K Madan, Managing Director, India Infrastructure Finance Company (UK) Limited, said there has been tremendous response from investors to invest in India and in the last two months the company had received proposals worth 2 billion dollars for investing in infrastructure sector in India.

Sajjad Karim, Conservative Member of European  Parliament for North West of England, said the recently-concluded "EU- India trade agreement" has resulted in a "win-win situation" for both sides as bilateral trade was booming.