The Indian Express reports on four law students challenging the Bar’s decision in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana.The four students have made the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana and the Union of India opposite parties in the petition.The petitioners appeared in their final semester exams in April 2010, and are now awaiting their results. The petitioners were astonished on receiving the information on the website of The Bar Council of India, wherein it was highlighted, “No advocate enrolled under Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961 shall be entitled to practice under Chapter IV of the Advocates Act, 1961, unless such advocate successfully passes the All India Bar Examination conducted by the Bar Council of India. It is clarified that the Bar Examination shall be mandatory for all law students graduating from academic year 2009-2010 and onwards and enrolled as advocates under Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961,” read the petition, filed by senior advocate Sanjay Bansal.

The Gujarat High Court, the Madras High Court and the Karnataka High Court have already admitted writ petitions against the Bar Exam.

The Times of India reports that the Madras HC pulled up lawyers for going on fast in court, but granted conditional bail to the 20 advocates who were arrested for fasting and demanding Tamil as an official language of the High Court. The court also recorded the ‘unconditional undertaking’ by the arrested advocates. A specially constituted bench comprising of Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice Prabha Sridevan recalled the Court's earlier ban orders on hunger strike and processions said, “Advocates would be released on their own bond only if they honoured their undertaking as well as the past and present orders of the court.”

The Mint reports that the Government has started discussions on easing coastal shipping law, and shippers say any relaxation of the law on coastal trade should be decided on the basis of market demand.The Shipping Ministry has begun consultations on restrictions laid on foreign registered ships from carrying cargo between Indian ports.

The Economist talks about companies and law firms who are turning to India for legal process outsourcing services.

After Facebook,a Pakistan Court has now banned Google, Yahoo, MSN and YouTube and five other websites. The Lahore High Court has accused these websites of publishing and promoting blasphemous material.