QUE 2: DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL PROFESSION IN INDIA

SYNOPSIS

1. HISTORY OF LEGAL PROFESSION

2. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN ANCIENT INDIA
3. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN MEDIEVAL INDIA
4. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN BRITISH INDIA
a. CHARTER OF 1726
b. CHARTER OF 1753
c. CHARTER OF 1774
d. THE BENGAL REGULATION ACT, 1793
e. THE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ACT, 1846
f. THE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ACT, 1853
g. INDIAN HIGH COURTS ACT, 1861
h. THE LETTER PATENT OF 1865 OF HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA
i. LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ACT, 1879
j. INDIAN BAR COMMITTEE, 1923
k. INDIAN BAR COUNCIL ACT, 1926
5. LEGAL PROFESSION IN INDEPENDENT INDIA
a. ALL INDIA BAR COMMITTEE, 1951
b. ADVOCATES ACT, 1961

1. HISTORY OF LEGAL PROFESSION

 The legal profession is an important branch of the administration of
justice mechanism.
 The history of the legal profession in India can be traced back to the
establishment of the First British Court in Bombay in the year 1672 by
the respective Governor Aungier.
 Admissions of attorneys were placed in the hands of the Governor in
Council and not in Court.
 Before the establishment of the Greater Courts in 1726 in Madras and
Calcutta, there were no legal experts in India.
 There was no established legal profession until the establishment of the
Mayor’s Court.
 Lawyers lacked legal training, and some of the mayor’s court officials
were dismissed servants of the British East India Company.
 There were some years that played an important role in the creation of
courts in India.

2. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN ANCIENT INDIA

 In ancient India, people lived in small groups. The heads of these groups
or tribes pronounced justice in public before all members. Arguments
were presented openly.
 In those days, there were no specialists like lawyers.
 When kings established themselves in society, they dispensed justice.
 At the royal court, the king was advised by his advisors.
 The law of those days had its roots in Hindu religion and customs.
 Dharma was protected by the king. Though there were no bar
associations, some intellectuals ensured justice.
 From the stories of Maryada and Vikramaditya, who were the sage who
solved the critical cases of those days.
 In those days, justice was administered by administrators. For a time,
religious leaders dominated society in the administration of justice.
 In those days, the victim filed a complaint with the king and later the
court summoned the accused to present his response.
 The court then investigated the matter based on the evidence. The king
followed the advice of the religious leaders and wise courtiers and then
passed his sentence.

3. The legal profession in Medieval India

 During the medieval period, there has been no group of the criminal
profession. But each event to the litigation called their Vakils.
 This frame comes to a decision the case and that they have been paid a
percentage of the quantity of the claim.
 The Court has the authority to determine who needs to be allowed to
seem as Vakils.
 They act as agents for the directors, however now no longer as attorneys.
 The identical device persevered in northern India even beneath neath the
guideline of thumb of the East India Company.
4. The legal profession in British India
 During the British period, the current legal system evolved in India.
Before 1726, the courts derived their authority now no longer from the
British crown however from the East India Company.
a. Charter of 1726
o In 1726, the crown issues the charter of 1726, and the Mayor’s
Court were established in three presiding towns; Bombay, Calcutta
and Madras.
 o They were the Royal Courts. They followed the procedure based
on English law. But there were no facilities to get the legal
training.
o The Mayor’s Court has no jurisdiction in criminal cases. The
criminal jurisdiction was conferred on the Governor.
b. Charter of 1753
o In 1753, another charter was issued to modify the charter of 1726.
o This charter also ignored significant provision for legal training
and education relating to legal practitioner.
o Even after the charter of 1753 the legal profession was not
organised.
c. Charter of 1774
o The first concrete step in the direction of organizing a legal
profession in India was taken in 1774 when the Supreme Court was
established at Calcutta.
o The Regulating Act, 1773, empowered the Supreme Court to frame
rules of procedure as it thought necessary for the administration of
justice and due execution of its powers. 
d. The Bengal regulation act of 1793
o The Bengal Regulation VII of 1793 permitted qualified Hindu and
Muslim persons only to enrol as pleaders.
o The Bengal Regulation XII of 1833 allowed all the qualified
persons of any nationality or religion to enrol as a pleader of the
sardar Diwani Adalat.
e. The legal Practitioner act, 1846
o Under this act, it allowed the people of any nationality or religion
to act as pleaders.
o It also allowed Attorneys and Barristers enrolled in any of her
Majesty’s Courts in India to plead in the company’s Sadar
Adalat’s.
f. The legal Practitioner act, 1853
o This act authorised the Barristers and Attorneys of the Supreme
Court to plead in any of the Company’s courts subordinate to the
Sadar Court subject to rules in force in the said subordinate Courts
as regards language or otherwise.
g. Indian High Courts Act, 1861
o The Indian High court act, 1861 empowered the Government to
establish High Court in Presidency towns.
 o After the establishment of the High Courts, the civil courts were
organised at different towns.
o The criminal courts were organised by the criminal procedure code
of 1898.
h. The letter patent if 1865 of high court of Calcutta
o The Letters Patent of 1865 of the High Court of Calcutta
empowered the Court “to approve, admit and enrol such and so
many Advocates, Vakils and Attorneys as to the said High Court
shall deem fit.”
o These persons were “authorized to appear for the suitors of the
High Court, and to plead or to act, or to plead and act for the said
suitors, according to as High Court may by its rules and directions
determine, and subject to such rules and directions.
i. Legal Practitioners act, 1879
o Under this act, the term ‘’legal practitioner” means Advocates,
Solicitors (Attorneys), and Vakils of the High Court, Pleaders,
Mukhtars and revenue agents in the lower courts. 
o Under the rules framed by the High Courts under the Legal
Practitioners Act, law graduates who not possesses the additional
qualification to enabled to them to be enrolled as the High Court
Vakils, and non-law graduates after passing the pleaders
examination conducted by the high Court, were enrolled as
Pleaders to practice before subordinate courts.
j. Indian bar committee, 1923
o A committee called Indian bar committee under the chairmanship
of sir Edward Chamier was constituted in 1923 to consider the
issue of organisation of the Bar on all India basis.
o The Committee did not favour the establishment of All India Bar
Council.
o It was of the view that a Bar council should be constituted for each
high court.
k. Indian Bar Council Act, 1926
o To give effect to the recommendations of the Chamier Committee
to some extent, the Central Legislature enacted the Indian Bar
Councils Act, 1926.
o The object of the Act, as stated in its preamble, was to provide for
o the constitution and incorporation of bar Councils for certain
Courts in British India,
 o to confer powers and impose duties on such bar Councils,
and
o to consolidate and attend the law relating to legal
practitioners entitled to practice in such courts.
o The purpose of the act thus was to unify the various grades of legal
practitioners and to provide some measure of self-government to
the bars attached to the various Courts.

5. Legal profession in independent India

a. ALL INDIA BAR COMMITTEE, 1951
o The Indian Bar Councils Act had left the pleaders, Mukhters etc.
practicing in the mofussil courts entirely out of its scope and did not bring
about a unified Indian Bar.
o Further, the Councils constituted under the Act were merely advisory
bodies and were neither Autonomous nor had any substantial authority.
o The Indian Legal profession was not satisfied with what had been
achieved by the Act of 1926.
o The Indian Practitioners had three main aims in view, namely:
 The abolitions of all distinctions between various classes and
grades of legal practitioner,
 The democratization of Bar Councils by bringing in representatives
Mofussil Lawyers on them,
 The taking away of the control exercised by the High Courts over
the members of the legal profession, and vesting the same in the
Bar Council.
b. THE ADVOCATES ACT, 1961
o In 1961, parliament enacted the Advocates Act to amend in consolidated
the law relating to the legal practitioner, and to provide for the
constitution for the State Bar Council and All India Bar Council.
o The Advocates Act implements the recommendation of the Bar
Committee in the Law Commission with some modifications.
o It repeals the Indian Bar Council Act, 1926, the Legal Practitioners Act,
1879, in other laws under subject.
o The act has undergone several amendments since its enactment in 1961.
The Act extends to the whole of India.

CONCLUSION
To conclude with, Legal history existing, the law as a profession has
evolved after thousands of years which, no denial, is flourishing. Through
the various stages of development has it come to the place of recognition
and social acceptance! Yet there exist some bias and ill-informed
criticisms among the lower strata of the society besides bordering
condemnations. The immense stride that the ‘legal profession’ has made
post-independence is to the credit of the Government and the Bar Council
of India and various states.