And while Moily has not yet delivered on any of his promises, this week's unveiling of a 'national litigation policy' could be an important first step.

The new national litigation policy focusses on picking just one heavy low-hanging fruit: the government's role as India's most "compulsive litigant".

Granted, easier said than done but where else do you start? It may be a whole sight more realistic nudging government departments than influencing lawyers in India's myriad courts.

For example, read this week's hotly debated legal opinion arguing that Madras lawyers should not be campaigning to make Tamil the court's official language. Not everyone agrees.

Elsewhere the government is also finding new ways to deal with lawyers. In the two most recent law firm pitches for the government's multi-billion dollar asset sale programme, the ministry has trialled a new way of making law firms pitch for the work. But is it a boon for young law firms or will it result in downward pressure on prices?

And as if the courts were not busy enough, no one was surprised this week when writ petitions four and five (and counting) challenged the Bar Council of India's (BCI) proposed bar exam. Aggrieved students have also taken another route, taking the case straight to Moily himself.

Meanwhile, Dua Associates says that it has been rebuilding itself after January's mass exodus of 50. Nevertheless, another of Dua's senior Mumbai partners has now decided to join the ranks of the breakaway Tatva Legal.

Also, two big recurring events in India's legal calendar this week:

1. The latest Bombay solicitors exam: pass rates remained woefully low but then again, the idea is to test legal knowledge, not churn out solicitors. Join the heated discussion and download the test paper to see how you would fare.

2. Every year, the two national weekly magazines India Today and Outlook India compete to release their rankings of the top Indian law schools. Very few seem pleased: out of 98+ comments on Legally India, all of them use fighting words.

The Blogs

• nandiireywal, Indian lawyer in exile, remembers how he came to work at Colby Hewitt and Richards LLP in this entertaining multi-parter.
• john2010 addresses racism in the land of skin-whitening creams, Salman Khan and Bipasha Basu.
• DisplacedBong with a funny account of what really (could) happen when you enter the Indian (un)civil service.
• LegalPoet explains law school ragging (bullying or 'positive interaction' in other words) in his ABC of law schools series.
• sss articulates what is wrong with India Today's law school rankings.
• napster shoots down the myths of mooting and compiles a very useful table and criticism of the fees some top law schools charge.
• Everyone's favourite blogging retired judge R.K Mathur in a lawyers' call to arms, in inimitable verse; and teaches post-Bhopal lessons we should heed.
• And practising advocate legallyspeaking imagines he is a judge and how cases are really decided.
• Ashish Arun, who is perhaps the youngest-ever manager of an LPO, gives an excellent analysis of YouTube's victory against Viacom.
• Topical blogger DB7-HS17 finds parallel between the South Africa football World Cup and law school. Vuvuzela anyone?
• And rbdixit on how to fight and win a court case in India, not always using just the courts.

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