General Counsel not included under ‘legal practitioner’ definition in BCI’s 2026 draft Advocates Act

General Counsel and other in-house lawyers working for private companies do not feature under the proposed definition of “legal practitioner” in the Draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2026 released by the Bar Council of India (BCI).

This marks a significant departure from the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025 released by the Union Law Ministry.

The 2025 proposal defined a legal practitioner as any advocate or law graduate practising before courts, tribunals or quasi-judicial forums or undertaking legal work in a private or public organisation. It expressly covered lawyers working in statutory and autonomous bodies, domestic and foreign law firms and corporate entities.

The proposal would have given express statutory recognition to the work performed by General Counsel, in-house lawyers, corporate legal teams and lawyers employed by law firms.

It also provided that experience certificates issued by private or public organisations, domestic and foreign law firms and corporate entities would constitute prima facie proof of legal practice. The concerned Bar Council could verify the authenticity of such a certificate if it received a complaint.

These provisions have been removed from the 2026 draft.

The latest proposal defines a legal practitioner as an advocate practising before a court, tribunal or quasi-judicial body. Beyond this category, it recognises only law graduates enrolled with a State Bar Council and employed by the government or a government organisation.

Such government-employed lawyers must be engaged in rendering legal advice or undertaking work connected with litigation and the drafting of laws and legal documents.

The proposed definition reads:

“‘Legal practitioner’ means an advocate practising before any Court, tribunal and quasi-judicial body or any law graduate enrolled with the state bar council, employed in government or any government organisation for rendering legal advice, and performs such other legal work pertaining to litigation and drafting of laws and legal documents.”

The 2026 proposal also adds an enrolment condition. The 2025 draft covered “any Advocate or law graduate” doing specified legal work. Under the latest version, the employment category covers a government lawyer only when the person is enrolled with a State Bar Council.

The existing Advocates Act, 1961 defines a legal practitioner using legacy categories. These include an advocate or vakil of a High Court, pleader, mukhtar and revenue agent. Both the 2025 and 2026 proposals seek to remove these older designations.

The definition of “Bar Examination” has also changed. The 2025 draft allowed the BCI to prescribe an examination either for enrolment as an advocate or for continuing to practise after enrolment.

The 2026 draft removes the reference to an examination for enrolment. It defines a Bar Examination as the All India Bar Examination or another test prescribed for the continued entitlement of an enrolled law graduate to practise.

The latest draft separately introduces statutory definitions of law firms, foreign lawyers, foreign law firms, fly-in and fly-out practice and Election Tribunals.

It defines a law firm as a partnership, limited liability partnership, company or other body consisting of advocates and engaged in legal practice. However, this institutional recognition does not extend the proposed definition of legal practitioner to General Counsel and other private-sector employees.

The draft has been placed before stakeholders for public consultation. Suggestions may be submitted to the BCI until 3 pm on July 31. The proposals will take effect only if enacted by Parliament and brought into force by the Central government.

[Read Proposal]