Government of India Union Budget 2009-10
Government Law College Coimbatore declared “indefinite closure” after 50 students allegedly locked principal and 12 staff in the college’s main building for several hours while other students attended classes, reported The Hindu.
Students were protesting the administration’s decision to transfer three students to another college.
India's minister of law and justice Veerappa Moily unveiled a "national litigation policy" today under which the government "must cease to be a compulsive litigant" by creating a new layer of supervisory bureaucracy, reducing appeals and reviewing all existing cases, while tightening legal panels and increasing fees of lawyers representing the government.
Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai is hunting for a new principal to revitalise and energise the law school. In unrelated news GLC Mumbai has also called for an investigation into an alleged Rs 22 lakh embezzlement of student funds.
In the Tier 3 DM Harish moot Nalsar Hyderabad has drawn back to the tied top of the league table, while the young team from NLU Delhi won and made its debut in the rankings as Government Law College Mumbai broke into a strong sixth place.
Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai struck back again after last month's KK Luthra victory by defeating the team from NLIU Bhopal at the MM Singhvi Bar Council of India Moot Court Competition.
NLU Jodhpur has beaten Law Centre I (LC-I) Delhi University in the finals of Philip C. Jessup North India round, while Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai bested Nalsar Hyderabad in the finals of the KK Luthra moot.
School of Excellence in Law (SOEL), Chennai has beaten Symbiosis Society Law College, Pune in the finals of the Nani Palkhiwala National Tax Moot Court Competition held by Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai on Saturday.
Amarchand Mangaldas is moving on with its second Government divestment instruction, advising NHPC (National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) on raising around Rs 1,680 crore through an initial public offering (IPO).
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The 2009-10 Union Budget received a frosty reaction from the business community this week: investors reacted by selling and lawyers reacted by doing what they do best: threatening to file law suits and, err, going on strike.
Lawyers have threatened legal action over the Government's new service tax as Delhi litigators are going on strike over the issue today.
It turns out not all lawyers are against being charged service tax...
The Bar Council of India for one has come out in favour of the tax change that was introduced in Monday's budget, which meant that for the first time ever, Indian lawyers will be deemed to provide a service - something that clients will no doubt applaud after years of being palmed off with mere professional advice.
BCI chairman SNP Sinha told the Business Standard he thought it was a great idea that law firms would finally be taxed.
"The government of India has taken a wise decision by imposing tax," he said. "In the wake of the recently passed Limited Liability Partnership Act, foreign law firms are making (back-door) entry through joint ventures and collaboration. Thus they are justified in imposing tax."
Perhaps crucially, the tax change will not affect individual practitioners or those rendering services to - sorry, advising - individuals.
Unsurprisingly, the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) was not happy. The body's president Lalit Bhasin told the daily paper: "It is a (retrograde) step.
"Instead of helping, strengthening and promoting Indian law firms, the government is trying to substantially weaken them, and they are facing the threat of entry of foreign firms in the country."
Thanks to islandexpress who first tweeted the Business Standard article.
Today's Budget has introduced measures to give greater certainty to advance tax rulings to avoid litigation, which has been cautiously welcomed by Indian tax lawyers as appealing particularly to foreign investors.
This year's Union Budget has paved the way for law firm partnerships to convert to limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
The 2009-10 Union Budget has extended service tax to lawyers, which could directly increase legal bills to clients and result in downward pressure on fees.
Amarchand, Ashurst and Luthra & Luthra have restarted their work on the exhumed Oil India initial public offering (IPO), which the government hopes will fill its coffers by up to Rs 2,400 crore ($500m).