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It is very obvious to me (and to anyone with half a brain) that reform is desperately needed. In my view, these nine reforms (Navratnas) will change the Legal landscape in India.
(i) Increase the number of courtrooms and judges by 3X in the lower judiciary.
(ii) Make the AIBE tougher - so that the pass percentage comes down by half. The AIBE cannot be a no-brainer, open-book exam
(iii) Scrap the collegium system for recruitment to the High Court and Supreme Court.
(iv) All judges (whether in the lower courts or in the higher judiciary) should be hired by a written exam and then allotted points based on the number of appearances in court and number of favourable verdicts.
(v) Designation as a "Senior Advocate" should be automatic for any advocate who has been enrolled at the bar for a certain number of years (20 years) and has filed a minimum number of Vakalatnamas and obtained a minimum number of favourable verdicts.
(vi) Replace the Bar Council of India with an independent regulator. The Bar Council of India is controlled by lawyers with vested interests and are happy with the status quo. WE NEED CHANGE!
(vi) Replace the Bar Council of India with an independent regulator. The Bar Council of India is controlled by lawyers with vested interests and are happy with the status quo. WE NEED CHANGE!
(vii) Allow Indian lawyers and law firms to partner with foreign lawyers and law firms, subject to the rule that only Indian advocates who have passed the AIBE can appear in court.
(viii) Advocates should be under the jurisdiction of consumer courts. If doctors are subject to consumer courts, why not lawyers?
(ix) Ban the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) which has so far successfully lobbied to keep foreign law firms from entering India and prevented any reform that could help lawyers without godparents.
If you are law graduate looking for a job or a law student who is unsure of getting a job, take a piece of paper and write a letter to the Prime Minister (don't type-write with a real pen and real ink) requesting for legal reform and mentioning the Navratnas I have listed above, plus anything else that you might want to add, slip the letter into an envelope, write the address by hand, buy real stamps from a post office and post the letter to the Prime Minister at the address mentioned above.
If you don't agree with any or all of the nine points I have written above, but still feel reform is needed, please write to the PM nevertheless. Tell him that reform is needed and (in your view) how to go about it.
Let the Prime Minister get a room full of letters from all of us and maybe that will nudge the powers that be, to reform the legal system in our country.