Legal Services From GIFT IFSC: The IFSCA Framework and the Bar Council Rules

GIFT IFSC has a provision that surprises many lawyers: “Legal services” is a permitted ancillary service, listed in the First Schedule to the IFSCA (TechFin and Ancillary Services) Regulations, 2025, alongside legal process outsourcing, secretarial services, fund administration and valuation. That listing sits within a financial-services regulator’s rulebook. It does not, by itself, change who may practise Indian law or how. The relationship between the two frameworks, IFSCA’s and the Bar Council of India’s, is the subject of this article.

What IFSCA Permits

The 2025 Regulations create a single registration for “TechFin and Ancillary Service Providers”. “Ancillary Services” are defined as services which, directly or indirectly, aid or assist activities in relation to financial products, financial services and financial institutions.

The First Schedule lists the permitted ancillary services. They include actuarial services; advisory services; asset management support; auditing; business process outsourcing; compliance management support; customer care support; enterprise governance support; fund administration including fund accounting; human resources and payroll; insolvency professional services and liquidation support; knowledge process outsourcing; legal process outsourcing; legal services; management consulting; marketing support; risk management support; secretarial services; broking for leasing activities permitted in the IFSC; supply chain management support; trusteeship including facility agent functions, but excluding debenture trustee services permitted under the Capital Market Intermediaries Regulations, 2025; valuation services; voice broking for banking services; family office support services; and global mobility or immigration support services for students and employees coming to the IFSC.

The Third Schedule lists what may not be provided under this registration, including core activities that a home-jurisdiction regulator does not permit to be outsourced, activities regulated under any other IFSCA regulation or framework, facility management, transport and logistics, and any service that does not constitute making arrangements for carrying on the financial services listed in the IFSCA Act.

Registration is mandatory before commencing operations. Entities previously authorised under the ancillary services framework circular of 10 February 2021, or as FinTech entities under the circular of 27 April 2022, must obtain registration under the 2025 Regulations within twelve months of their commencement, extendable by the Chairperson for recorded reasons up to an aggregate of twenty-four months, and continue to be governed by the earlier frameworks until they are registered.

What the Bar Council Rules Permit

The practice of law in India is governed by the Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council of India’s rules, not by IFSCA. The Supreme Court settled the basic position in Bar Council of India v. A.K. Balaji, (2018) 5 SCC 379, which addressed the extent to which foreign law firms and lawyers may operate in India.

The BCI’s rules for registration and regulation of foreign lawyers and foreign law firms, made in 2022 and notified in their current form in May 2025, permit registered foreign lawyers and firms to practise in non-litigious matters only, subject to conditions and limitations, and to advise on foreign law, international law and international arbitration. Registration is by application in the prescribed form, with fees, a guarantee amount and a processing charge, and is valid for five years, renewable.

Registered foreign lawyers and firms may not appear before Indian courts, tribunals or regulatory authorities unless expressly permitted; may not undertake conveyancing, investigation of title to property or similar work; and may not draft or file documents for Indian court proceedings.

A fly-in, fly-out permission allows foreign lawyers to advise without registration, subject to conditions including an aggregate presence of not more than sixty days in a year, advisory work on foreign or international law only, and the absence of an office in India.

As at 17 September 2026, no IFSC-specific carve-out or special regime was traced within the BCI rules.

Reading the Two Together

Three propositions follow, and they should be kept distinct.

First, IFSCA’s listing is a financial-services authorisation, not a licence to practise law. IFSCA regulates the provision of ancillary services that support financial activity in the IFSC. It does not, and under the IFSCA Act cannot, displace the Advocates Act or the Bar Council’s jurisdiction, which are outside the First Schedule to the IFSCA Act (Article 1). An entity registered as an ancillary service provider for “legal services” remains subject to the professional rules governing who may render legal advice in India and in what form.

Second, the Third Schedule reinforces the boundary. Services that do not constitute making arrangements for carrying on the financial services listed in the IFSCA Act fall outside the registration entirely. The registration is tethered to the financial ecosystem it serves.

Third, the two frameworks answer different questions. IFSCA answers: may this entity operate from the IFSC, and on what conditions. The Bar Council framework answers: who may give legal advice, on which law, and in what capacity. A structure must satisfy both. Neither regulator’s permission cures a defect under the other’s rules.

Practical Questions a Firm Should Ask

• What exactly is being provided? Legal process outsourcing, document review and knowledge process work occupy different ground from advising a client on the law. The First Schedule lists both, but the professional-conduct analysis differs.
• Whose law is being advised on? The BCI framework distinguishes sharply between foreign and international law on the one hand, and Indian law on the other.
• Who is the adviser? Indian advocates, registered foreign lawyers, registered foreign law firms and non-lawyer service entities each occupy a different position.
• Is the activity regulated elsewhere by IFSCA? Items regulated under another IFSCA framework are excluded from the ancillary services registration, which matters for trusteeship and for any activity that shades into a licensed financial service.
• What professional conduct rules apply to the firm’s own advocates? For Indian advocates, the Bar Council’s rules on advertising, solicitation and professional conduct apply to their work regardless of where the office sits.

The Position as at 17 September 2026

Legal services are a permitted ancillary service in GIFT IFSC under IFSCA’s 2025 Regulations, subject to registration and to the Third Schedule exclusions. The entry of foreign lawyers and foreign law firms into India is governed by the Bar Council of India’s rules, as they stood following their May 2025 notification, read with the Supreme Court’s decision in A.K. Balaji. No IFSC-specific exception within the Bar Council framework was traced. Firms structuring legal-services operations in the IFSC should therefore plan on satisfying both regimes, and should verify the current text of the Bar Council rules, which have been amended more than once since 2022.