The purpose of the Chair is to enable the NLSIU to further conceptualise the study and practice of Public Interest Law in India and in the dissemination of India’s experience worldwide, keeping in view the needs and well-being of women and disadvantaged sections of society.

The Ford Foundation Public Interest Externship Programme

The Ford Foundation Public Interest Externship Programme was begun in the year 2022-23. The Public Externship Programme seeks to encourage the development of a younger generation of public interest practitioners in the country as well as to ensure that students gain hands-on, practical experience. Students selected for the externship are expected to assist public interest lawyers and organisations in their day-to-day work in ongoing legal matters, associated research and drafting work, as well as contribute to their policy and advocacy work. This externship programme is offered in collaboration with the Director (Clinics).

The externship programme is offered as an elective course for 4 credits. The initial set of students participating in the externship programme in 2022 were drawn from the BA LLB (Hons) cohort. Since then, the Externship programme has expanded to include students from the LLB (Hons) and the LLM cohorts. Since 2022-23, the Public Law externship programme has been offered to over 50 students across 10 trimesters.

Activities Undertaken/Organised

1. Panel Discussion on ‘Access to Justice in the Age of AI’ in Collaboration with the Legal Services Clinic, NLSIU: On the National Legal Services Day (November 9, 2025), the Chair, in collaboration with the Legal Services Clinic, NLSIU, organised a panel discussion on ‘Access to Justice in the Age of AI’. The panel brought together leading voices in the domain of technology and access to justice. It comprised Mr Sachin Malhan (Agami), Mr Hemanth Bharatha Chakravarthy (Jhana.ai), Ms Shirisha Reddy (Nyaaya), and was moderated by Prof. Varsha Aithala (Assistant Professor, NLSIU). The discussion examined how AI is reshaping legal aid ecosystems; its potential to democratise access; reduce infrastructural burdens; support overextended legal systems; and the ethical and institutional challenges it raises. It was followed by a QnA session.

2. Prof. Kamala Sankaran (former Chair Professor) provided comments on legislative and policy initiatives such as state-level Gig Workers Bills and other measures relating to workers’ social protection over 2023-24.

3. The Chair organised a talk by Justice Dr S. Muralidhar (retd), Former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, and Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India on ‘Caste in Prison: A Judicial Unravelling’, on 14 March, 2025 at the NLSIU campus. A report of the well-attended lecture, as well as the YouTube recording, is available here.

4. Dr Pranav Verma, along with Ms Radhika Chitkara, also engaged Justice Dr S. Muralidhar in a wide-ranging conversation on prisons, judicial activism, and legal aid in India, as part of the NLSJ blog Scholar in Conversation series available here.

Research Output

1. Dr Pranav Verma, Affiliate Faculty, Ford Foundation Chair in Public Interest Law, produced a research publication in which he empirically surveyed nearly 750 PILs from the Supreme Court of India over a period of forty-five years. The paper, titled ‘Forty-five years of public interest litigation in India: Changing constituencies and the rise of the regulatory court’, was published recently by the International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 24-2 (2026).

2. The Ford Foundation Chair has been involved in developing two working papers on the theme ‘Financial viability of private school education: Understanding the role of courts in India’. The working papers focused on Delhi and Maharashtra. These two papers trace how courts and legislatures have sought to curb “commercialisation” and “profiteering” while preserving private self‑financing. The papers analyse the role of the courts and shifts in the approach of courts in regulating the financing of school education in India. Work on the papers was carried out in 2025-26. In addition to the Chair (then Dr. Kamala Sankaran) and Faculty associated with the Chair (Dr Pranav Verma), Mr Shashank Patil, a student of LLB(Hons) IIIrd year, NLSIU, worked on these working papers. The Draft Working Paper on Maharashtra was prepared by Dr Pranav Verma, Faculty associated with the Chair, while the Draft Working Paper on Delhi was prepared by Mr Shashank Patil. These draft papers were presented in a workshop on ‘Public Interest Litigation from a Comparative Perspective: Legitimacy of Judicial Lawmaking’ organised by the NLSIU, Tilburg University and Utrecht University on March 29, 2026.

Participation in External Meetings/Conferences/Workshops as Resource Persons

As the Chair Professor, Ford Foundation Chair in Public Interest Law, Prof. Kamala Sankaran was invited to speak at the following events:

1. Speaker at NALSAR Colloquium on Cooperation, Contentment and Care to Enable Justice for All, 11 November, 2023.
2. Speaker at the Lecture Series on Engendering Laws: Status and Challenges, organised by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Institute of Law, Nirma University, 23 January, 2024 (remote).
3. Speaker at the inauguration of the Constitution Defenders Fellowship by the Centre for Law and Policy Research at the Karnataka High Court, 25 January, 2024.

Affiliated faculty: Pranav Verma