Four prominent Indian lawyers received National Law Day awards from President Pratibha Patil on National Law Day on the 27th of November 2007. Former Chief Justice of India, Justice AS Anand, Bar Council of India Chairman, Mr. Gopakumar Nair, corporate lawyer and Managing Partner of Titus & Co., Mr. Diljeet Titus and Society of Indian Law Firms President, Mr. Lalit Bhasin received the awards in New Delhi. Justice Anand received the award for administration of justice, Mr. Nair for his contribution towards legal education, Mr. Titus for his achievements in the field of commercial laws and Mr. Bhasin for his contribution to bar affairs. The winners were selected by a jury chaired by former Chief Justice of India Justice PN Bhagwati.

A study published by a Pune based research firm ValueNotes has said that legal process outsourcing in India is expected to be at USD 640 million by the end of 2010 as against USD 146 million today. It is also said that the number of people employed in this sector will increase from the current 7,500 to 32,000 in the next three years. Rising demand, vendor maturity and capability to offer higher value sources has led to enormous growth in this sector. Growth is expected in services like IP, legal research, contracts, document review and legal publishing apart from numerous other services offered by LPOs.

Turkish lawmakers voted for a second time in favour of a key constitutional amendment thereby opening the way to lifting the ban on head scarf’s in Islamic universities. A total of 403 law makers in the 550-seat house voted in favour of this amendment. However, this reform has angered secularists who see the head scarf as a symbol of defiance against the strict separation of state and religion.

In a bid to clear the heavy backlog of cases and render speedy justice, the government has proposed to increase the strength of the SC judges from 25 to 30. A bill to introduce the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 would be soon introduced in the parliament to increase the same. The government had earlier informed the Parliament that pending cases in the apex court had increased by 25 % since 2006.

The government is all set to remove the cap on the number of partners in partnerships and banking companies which are regulated under the company law. This will enable law and accountancy firms to expand in a big way. Even banks which are formed as a partnership firm or as a company but not regulated by the RBI will also become an attractive business proportion in the banking sector. Currently the Companies Act allows only 10 partners in a partnership bank and 20 partners for other partnership firms like law and accountancy as compared to the US and Europe where firms have more than 100 partners. The ongoing global talks for liberalization of market access in services, driven by the WTO, aims at opening areas in the law and accountancy sectors. This move is in line with the government’s plan to enact a new law to introduce limited liability partnership (LLP) in the country which will allow a hybrid form of business entity that has all the advantages of a partnership and a country.

The Union Finance Ministry has amended the Income Tax to hold a company liable to pay penalty, if it has not deducted the tax at source while entering into a deal. The provision has been amended with retrospective effect from June 2003. Till now, if a company did not deduct tax assuming it is no required under the law, it could be asked by the government to pay up the same. The company can opt for a legal battle if it does not want to pay up. If it looses the case, it needs to pay only the tax but not the penal interest. After the amendment, the company now has to pay both the tax and the interest at the rate of 15%. Last year, Vodafone had gone to the Bombay High Court against the notice. Now after this amendment, if it loses the case, it will have to pay the tax amount along with interest at over 15% over the period between signing the deal and the payment made.

Pharma giant Cadila Health Care had dragged Dabur India for use of its ‘sugar free’ trademark in a health supplement manufactured by the rival. Justice Ahmed has issued a notice to Dabur restraining it from using the ‘sugar-free’ trademark or any other mark that is identical or deceptively similar to it. Cadila alleged that Dabur had tried to capitalize upon its goodwill and reputation by using the same words prominently on the packaging of its product ‘Chyawanprakash’. Earlier Cadila had approached a division bench of the Delhi HC challenging the order of a single judge allowing Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, which manufactures Amul products, to use the expression ‘sugar-free’. Even here, Cadila had contended that the words ‘sugar-free’ were associated exclusively with Cadila and it would be fraudulent and illegal for anyone to sell any product under the same name.

TVS Motors has been restrained by the Madras HC from manufacturing or selling the 125cc bike ‘Flame’. The court passed the order on a suit filed by Bajaj Auto, seeking TVS from manufacturing, distributing or selling vehicles protected by the patent number 195904. Bajaj Auto had alleged infringement of intellectual property rights on technology that is used in most of its bikes.