Consular, Passport and Visa Division

Central Authority for Mutual Legal Assistance Requests in Civil and Commercial Matters

Similarly, as per Allocation of Business Rules of the Government of India, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of law and Justice is the nodal Ministry and the Central Authority for seeking and providing mutual legal assistance in civil and commercial matters. The Department of Legal Affairs receives all such requests, examines them and takes appropriate action.. Their address is Judicial section, Department of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Law, Shastri Bhawan, 4th Floor, New Delhi – 110001.

All requests seeking assistance from a foreign country including the service of all kinds of judicial processes, including summons etc., or other judicial documents should be directly submitted to the concerned central authority, i.e., to the Ministry of Home Affairs in criminal matters and to the Ministry of Law & Justice in civil and commercial matters.

Further details are available on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs: (http://mha.nic.in/Policy-Guidelines)