News Type: Event

Launch of the Maya Sharma–Indira Pathak (MSIP) Collection Online Catalogue | By Queer Archive for Memory Reflection and Activism, NLSIU

NLSIU’s Queer Archive for Memory Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) is launching the Maya Sharma–Indira Pathak (MSIP) Collection Online Catalogue, featuring a talk by Maya Sharma, on November 25, 2025, 5 to 7 PM at the Bangalore International Centre (BIC).

RSVP Here

About the Collection

Maya Sharma and Indira Pathak are feminist, queer, grassroots activists based in Vadodara, Gujarat. Maya Sharma is a journalist and worked with trade unions and the autonomous women’s movement before entering the queer movement. She is the author of the seminal book “Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India” and the more recent “Footprints of a Queer History: Life-Stories from Gujarat”. Indira Pathak previously worked with labour unions, the Mahila Samakhya programme and Nari Adalats in rural Gujarat before founding Vikalp Women’s Group. Their collection, built from their personal and organisational archives, documents the lives, struggles and everyday worlds of lesbians and trans men in Gujarat. It includes personal correspondence, photographs, crisis and legal case files, newsletters, ephemera, and organisational records that document decades of grassroots queer and feminist work. This collection forms an important part of Indian queer history, and QAMRA is honored to be able to steward it.

This catalogue is QAMRA’s first searchable online catalogue. It marks the beginning of our efforts to make our archive more widely accessible online.

At this event, we will introduce the MSIP collection, talk about how it has been put together, and demonstrate how this new online catalogue can be used for research, teaching, and community work. We will also reflect on questions of access, privacy, and care in queer archival practice, in conversation with Maya Sharma about the histories, relationships, and movements reflected in the archive.

Play Screening | ‘Macbeth’ Starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo | By The Green Room

The student-led theatre effort at NLS, The Green Room, will screen Macbeth, Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy, on 19 November 2025 at NAB 101 (5–7 PM).

The production, staged by the Donmar Warehouse, runs for two hours and stars David Tennant and Cush Jumbo in the lead. It is acclaimed for its electrifying performances and strikingly minimal staging.

The Green Room is a nod to the intimate, lively backstage space in theatres where artists gather before a performance. Here is the exciting schedule for this trimester.

Playwright and the Play

William Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest playwright in the English language, remains central to global theatre for his psychological depth, linguistic brilliance, and enduring insight. Written in the early 1600s, Macbeth is one of his shortest yet most ferocious tragedies.

The play follows General Macbeth, whose encounter with a prophetic promise ignites a dangerous interplay of ambition and manipulation. Driven further by political desire and the formidable agency of Lady Macbeth, he descends into regicide, paranoia, moral disintegration, and tyrannical rule. It is a story unflinching in its examination of guilt, masculinity, gender, fate versus self-determination, and the psychological costs of violence.

Book Discussion | ‘Judge and Be Judged: Musings on the Top Court’ | Moderated by NLS Faculty Radhika Chitkara

Radhika Chitkara, Assistant Professor of Law at NLSIU is moderating a book discussion on Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar’s recently published book ‘[In]complete Justice? The Supreme Court at 75,’ at the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) on Sunday, November 16, 2025. She will be in conversation with Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar, Former Chief Justice, High Court of Orissa; Justice N. Santosh Hegde, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India; and Dr. Aditya Sondhi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India.

As the Supreme Court of India completes seventy-five years, how do we understand its role in shaping the country’s institutions and democratic ideals? Has it remained a counter-majoritarian voice, and how has it navigated questions of accountability, transparency and constitutional promise? The speakers will explore these questions and the intersections of law, legitimacy and justice in contemporary India.

If you are interested in attending the event, RSVP here.

Book Talks@NLS Library | ‘Whither a Textbook? Method & Value in Avtar Singh’s Company Law’

The NLSIU Library Committee is organising a book talk titled ‘Whither a Textbook? Method & Value in Avtar Singh’s Company Law’, co-edited by Saranya Mishra, Dharmendra Chatur and Siddharth Raja. The talk will take place on November 19, 2025, at 5 pm in the NLS Library basement.

Panellists

This event is open to the public. Please note, registration for members outside of the NLSIU community is mandatory to attend the event. Visitors can register here.

Abstract

The 18th Edition (2025) of Avtar Singh’s Company Law contains a few substantive and several incremental changes over the last edition brought out over six years ago. The fast-paced nature of the legal developments in the corporate and commercial law sector since the previous edition has necessitated this totally revised and completely revamped new edition of this book.

Why does this textbook merit a critical forum? First, to comprehend the fundamental reordering of this book with the presupposition that such a book must involve itself with a broader principles-based analysis of the company law.  That is, the need for a focus on first legal principles coupled with legislative inputs and judicial interpretation and thus set it apart from other commentaries on company law that expressly treat the subject in a chronological, section-wise manner.  The forum will also allow a discussion of how the editorial team could set aside, as much as practicable, a section-wise analysis and move the focus of the book back to the true and original intent of Dr. Avtar Singh — namely, a principles-based logical treatment, explanation, and analysis of company law, and how that shapes comprehension and teaching of the subject at hand.

The revised edition of this book contains — for the first time — a detailed and exhaustive “Introduction,” which is proffered as a must-read in order to establish the ‘legal method’ involved in reading, understanding, and appreciating company law.  The critical relevance of such an introduction for students and for practitioners will also be discussed in the forum.

Online Lecture Series with Prof. Amlan Das Gupta | ‘Sites of Disruption: Actions and Consequences in Greek Tragedy’

Amlan Das Gupta, retired Professor of English at Jadavpur University and noted scholar of Classical Studies, English Renaissance literature will offer four online lectures for the NLS community on select texts in Greek tragedy. The series, titled “Sites of Disruption: Actions and Consequences in Greek Tragedy,” will focus on Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Medea, and Aristotle’s Poetics.

The talks are scheduled on Saturdays, December 6, 13, 20, and 27, from 4 to 5:30 PM.

Please register your interest on this Google Form. Registered participants will receive updates and lecture links closer to the date.

About the Speaker

Prof. Amlan Das Gupta is a former Professor of English at Jadavpur University, where he taught for over two decades and played a central role in developing the university’s pioneering digital humanities and textual scholarship initiatives. A distinguished scholar of Classical and Biblical Studies, English Renaissance literature, and Miltonic thought, his research spans Greek tragedy, humanist traditions, and the intellectual history of the early modern period. He has published widely on Milton and Renaissance poetics, edited volumes on Renaissance culture, and contributed essays to major journals and anthologies. Prof. Das Gupta also headed the School of Cultural Texts and Records for nearly a decade, and founded the Archive of North Indian Classical Music, reflecting his deep engagement with textual, aural, and digital forms of scholarship.

Reading List

Texts

Sophocles, Antigone (Any translation; Richard Jebb, Richmond Lattimore and David Grene, and Robert Fagles are some well-known translators)

Euripides, Medea (Any translation; those by Philip Vellacott and Lattimore and Grene are popular)

Aristotle, The Poetics (Ancient Literary Criticism, ed. D.A. Russell and M. Winterbottom, Oxford, 1972) Chapters 1-15, pp 90-111.

Discussion

Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1986.  Chapter 3, pp.51-84, Ch 12, particularly pp.373ff.

E.R.Dodds, ‘Euripides the Irrationalist’, The Classical Review, 43 (03), 1929, pp.97-104

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Edited by P. E. Easterling, Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Background

Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought, Harper & Row,  2013

J-P. Vernant, The Origins of Greek Thought, Cornell, 1982

Judith Butler, Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death, Columbia University Press 2000

Guest Lecture | The Importance of Legal Due Diligence | Neeraj Vyas, Partner, Saga Legal

The ICICI Professorial Chair on Business Laws at NLSIU is hosting an expert on corporate law, Mr. Neeraj Vyas (NLS BA LLB 2014), Partner at Saga Legal, as a guest speaker on November 12, 2025.

Mr. Vyas will have an interactive session with 3rd to 5th year students of the BA LLB (Hons), final year students of the LLB (Hons), and students of the LLM programmes on the topic ‘The Importance of Legal Due Diligence’. The session will be held from 3 pm to 4:30 pm at NAB 101, and is being coordinated by NLS faculty Dr. Garima Gupta and Ms. Varsha Aithala.

About the Speaker

Mr. Vyas is a law graduate from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He is a Partner at the law firm, Saga Legal, and is based out of their Bengaluru office. He comes with a professional experience of almost a decade of corporate transactional and advisory expertise in navigating intricate private equity and investment fund transactions, and includes general corporate advisory, M&A, and venture debt matters, and across various sectors such as technology (Edtech, Agritech), FnB, education, media and entertainment. He has been recognised as a ‘Key Lawyer’ within the ‘Private Equity and Investment Funds’ category by The Legal 500. Prior to joining Saga Legal, he worked with Samvād Partners, Indus Law, and ICICI Bank Limited.

About the Session

Legal due diligence (LDD) is one of the most foundational yet under-taught aspects of corporate legal practice. While students learn contract law, company law, and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) theory, the practical application of these concepts often begins with conducting due diligence. For most law firm associates, due diligence is the first major task assigned, and it sets the tone for how effectively they can operate in a transactional environment. This session aims to bridge the gap between law school learning and on-ground practice by demystifying what legal due diligence really involves, why it matters, and how young lawyers can add value through it.

Duration: 60 to 90 minutes
Format: Interactive talk with real examples and a sample red-flag exercise.
Q&A: Open discussion on how students can build skills relevant for transactional work.

Objectives

By the end of this session, students will:

  • Understand what legal due diligence is and its relevance in corporate transactions.
  • Learn how to approach a due diligence exercise methodically.
  • Appreciate how due diligence findings influence deal negotiations and transaction documents.
  • Gain insights into common mistakes and best practices for young associates.

Key Topics

1. What is Legal Due Diligence?
 Definition and purpose: “trust but verify.”
 Where LDD fits in the transaction lifecycle (pre-deal stage to closing).
 How it supports decision-making in mergers, acquisitions, investments, and financings.

2. Types and Scope of Legal Due Diligence
 Corporate due diligence: incorporation, shareholding, and capital structure.
 Contractual due diligence: key commercial contracts, termination clauses, change of control.
 Regulatory and compliance due diligence: licenses, approvals, ongoing obligations.
 Litigation and dispute due diligence: material proceedings, risk assessment.
 Employment and real estate due diligence: employee issues, property ownership, leases.

3. The Due Diligence Process
 Understanding the data room and how information is provided.
 Setting timelines and scoping the review (red flag vs. comprehensive review).
 How to use a diligence checklist effectively.
 Categorizing findings: critical, major, and minor.
 Drafting the diligence report: structure, tone, and clarity.

4. Practical Insights from Law Firm Practice
 What partners and clients expect from a good diligence memo.
 How young associates can stand out while doing diligence work.
 Real-life anecdotes: how a small finding changed a deal.
 Technology and AI tools now reshaping due diligence.

Why it matters

Due diligence is often the first real opportunity for young lawyers to understand how law intersects with business. It builds analytical discipline, attention to detail, and commercial awareness. Strong due diligence skills:

  • Make you more valuable in deal teams.
  • Help you think beyond documents: to business strategy and risk.
  • Form the foundation for later responsibilities like drafting and negotiations.

This session is intended to make due diligence not just a “law firm chore,” but an intellectually engaging exercise in understanding how law safeguards commercial intent.

Play Reading | Poile Sengupta’s ‘Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni’ | By The Green Room

The student-led theatre effort at NLS, The Green Room, organised a reading of Poile Sengupta’s ‘Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni‘ on November 12, 2025.

The Green Room is a nod to the intimate, lively backstage space in theatres where artists gather before a performance. Here is the exciting schedule for this trimester.

Playwright and the Play

Poile Sengupta is one of India’s most significant contemporary playwrights and writers, known for her sharp reimaginings of familiar narratives through the lenses of gender, power, and socio-political critique. Last trimester, she visited NLS for a reading of her play Alipha, organised by the Literary and Debating Society.

Her play ‘Thus Spake Shoorpanakha,’ So Said Shakuni similarly brings two of Indian epics’ most misunderstood “antagonists” — Shoorpanakha (Ramayana) and Shakuni (Mahabharata) — into a contemporary, conversational world. Through humour, confrontation, and self-awareness, the play asks a radical question: were they truly villains, or simply characters rewritten by victors? Bold, witty, introspective, and political, it is a perfect piece to read, perform, and debate.

About the Session

This sharp, ironic work reimagines two mythological figures—Shoorpanakha from the Ramayana and Shakuni from the Mahabharata—through a contemporary feminist and political lens.

The session opened with a table reading led by our volunteers, Sanya (III year, BA LL.B.) and Tathagat (I year, BA), followed by an engaging discussion on the play’s exploration of alternative histories, narrative construction, desire, revenge, and the architecture of power. Participants reflected on the importance of asking who builds dominant narratives, against whom such narratives operate, and who becomes instrumentalised within them.

The gathering also examined how the characters’ decisions are propelled by distinct emotional worlds, such as love, anger, wounded pride, and how these intensities shape the choices they make.

2nd FinTech Moot Court Competition 2025-2026 | By NLSIU and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas

The Moot Court Society of NLSIU, in association with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM), presents the second edition of the NLS–SAM FinTech Moot Court Competition, 2025, scheduled on November 15–16, 2025.

This year’s moot proposition promises to raise pressing and contemporary legal questions in fintech ranging from digital public infrastructure to virtual reality, offering participants an opportunity to engage with complex legal, regulatory, and commercial dimensions of fintech law.

The moot problem has been expertly drafted by the Fintech team at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., with valuable contributions from Ms. Ranjana Adhikari’s team on gaming law and Mr. Shashank Mishra’s team on litigation aspects. Mr. Vivek Reddy (NLS BA LLB 2003), Senior Advocate, also shared his invaluable insights, lending significant industry realism to the problem.

A total of 36 teams submitted their memorials, and 24 have qualified to argue in the oral rounds, representing some of the top universities across the country.

Read The Brochure

NLS Faculty Seminar | ‘Women’s Time Use Between Paid and Unpaid Work in India’

At this week’s faculty seminar, Dr. Vijayamba R, Assistant Professor of Social Science, NLSIU presented a paper titled, ‘Women’s Time Use between Paid and Unpaid Work in India,’ that she has co-authored with Rosa Abraham and Srinivas Raghavendra from Azim Premji University.

Abstract

Women engage in a predominant share of unpaid work leaving less time for employment and leisure. This paper asks if engagement in employment results in an offsetting reduction on unpaid work across different levels of education and types of employment. We use the Time Use Survey of India (TUS 2019) to identify self-employment and wage employment from the International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics (ICATUS 2016). We find that for women engaged in self-employment, there is a slight trade off with unpaid work, whereas urban graduate women face an increased burden of unpaid work.

Writing Urban India (3.0) Fellows Conference | Nov 10-14, 2025

The HUPA Chair for Urban Poor and the Law at NLSIU, in collaboration with Writing Urban India Collective and the Urban Studies Foundation (UK), is hosting WUI Fellows Conference from November 10 to 14, 2025, as part of the Writing Urban India (WUI) Fellowship 3.0.

The Conference wraps up the third iteration of the WUI Fellowship, which began earlier this year. The 21 participating fellows will present the research papers they have developed over the course of the fellowship. The sessions will be held between 9:30 am to 5 pm at the Ground Floor Conference HAll , Training Centre, NLSIU and Fairfield by Marriott, Rajajinagar.

View The Schedule

About the Conference

Over the course of the event, fellows will present their work and engage in in-depth discussion with mentors and peers. Each paper will receive detailed feedback to further strengthen scholarly contribution.

Members of the WUI Collective, who have mentored the fellows through the 10-month writing fellowship, will attend the conference.

Distinguished scholars participating in the conference include Gopa Samanta (University of Burdwan), Gautam Bhan (Indian Institute for Human Settlements), J. Devika (Centre for Development Studies), Mukta Naik (National Institute of Urban Affairs), Marie–Hélène Zérah (French National Institute of Research for Development – IRD), Neha Sami (Indian Institute for Human Settlements), Rohit Negi (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta), Partha Mukhopadhyay (Centre for Policy Research), and Shivani Kapoor (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies).

The conference will be anchored by Sushmita Pati and Anwesha Ghosh from the National Law School of India University.

More About The Fellowship