Education

• MPhil-PhD, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi (2020).

Profile

Manpreet Dhillon is an interdisciplinary scholar of law and governance whose research examines the intersections of law, technology, and regulation in India. His work draws on interdisciplinary approaches to understand the dynamic interactions between legal institutions, socio-technical systems, and regulatory governance. He is also an Affiliate Faculty member at the JSW Centre for the Future of Law.

He joined NLSIU in 2022 as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Academic Fellow program. During this two-year tenure, he contributed to teaching and research across law, social sciences, and public policy. From 2019-2022, he served as an Adjunct Faculty at the School of Undergraduate Studies and the School of Global Affairs at Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD). He served as Associate Editor of the National Law School Journal (NLSJ) from August 2023 – December 2024, and currently sits on the faculty board of the Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT).

His doctoral research focused on the socio-legal history of efforts to establish legislation for regulating India’s proposed National DNA Databank. He has been a visiting doctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, Canada. As a doctoral scholar, he played a key role in establishing the Law & Tech Research Group at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, which led to critical data policy interventions. He is an active member of the Law and Social Sciences Research Network (LASSnet), the Science and Technology Studies (STS) India Network, and the India Public Policy Network (IPPN).

Publications

• Dhillon, M., Narain, M., Mishra, P., Kansra, D., Chowdhury, N., & Puneeth, P. (2021). The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019: A Critical Analysis. ILI Law Review, Winter Issue, 278–301.
• A (Re)look at the Proposed DNA Regulatory Board, Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), Vol. 56, Issue 3, ISSN no: 0012-9976 (Print), 2349-8846 (Online)
• Governing DNA paternity testing in India, International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, Vol. 9, Issue 7, ISSN no: 2249-2496
• Why India needs a Privacy Commissioner