The hopes of international law firms of gaining entry to India have suffered another setback after the local justice ministry officially stated that India's national bar had "decided not to permit foreign lawyers into India".

The statements were issued on behalf of The Bar Council of India (BCI), the statutory body that regulates India's lawyers which has maintained fierce resistance to calls for legal market liberalisation.

News of the decision was first reported by Indian legal publications Bar & Bench and Legally India, which obtained the statements from India's government press information bureau.

The reasoning behind the Indian bar council's decision is not immediately clear, although it will be "subject to a more detailed and rational scrutiny in the light of the opinions and points of view of different stakeholders," according to the first Law Ministry statement, titled "Entry of Foreign Law Firms".

The BCI is expected to flesh out a more detailed position on the treatment of foreign law firms in the coming months. A BCI insider told Bar & Bench that the organisation had decided on a course of action to "go through a transparent process before formulating any legal opinion".

A second statement issued by the Law Ministry, which refers explicitly to lawyers from the UK, says that "this is a matter which is to be considered by the [BCI] and the [BCI] is presently laying a clear road map for the purpose of ensuring legal reforms so that even entry of foreign lawyers would cause no serious concern."

In July, Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham headed a British delegation visiting India to discuss the entry of UK firms into the closed legal market. India's Law Ministry said at the time that, "on the opening up of the legal market, the Government would not impose a decision on the legal community of India".

The AmLaw Daily is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.