News Type: Event

Faculty Development Workshop Series | Call for Applications for Teaching Negotiation and Mediation in India | By NLSIU, UC Law SF & CAMP Mediation

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru in collaboration with the University of California College of Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF) and CAMP Mediation, Bengaluru, invites applications for a Faculty Development Workshop on ‘Teaching Negotiation and Mediation.’ The two-day workshop will be held on July 11 & 12, 2026.

This invitation-only cohort workshop is designed for law teachers interested in shaping the future of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), mediation, and negotiation education in India.

Why this workshop?

India stands at an inflection point in dispute resolution. With increasing court backlogs and dissatisfaction with arbitration, mediation is emerging as a central pillar of civil justice reform. The demand for lawyers trained in effective mediation advocacy and counseling skills has become more important than ever. Yet across most law schools in India, training in these subjects remains theoretical, lecture-based, and disconnected from practice.

By contrast, leading law schools in the United States and elsewhere have for decades delivered ADR and negotiation courses in an “experiential” format using role-play simulations adapted from actual practice. These courses are popular with students and are widely regarded as the gold standard in skills-based legal education. The American Bar Association now requires all law students to complete at substantial number of experiential courses prior to graduation.

Over the past two years, faculty from UC Law SF, working closely with CAMP and NLSIU, have piloted and refined a model for bringing this pedagogy into Indian classrooms. They have developed teaching materials, including syllabi, role-plays adapted to the Indian context, and a video of a mediation conducted by Senior Advocate Sriram Panchu – all designed to introduce skills-based learning in lecture classes of 60 or more students. These efforts have received positive feedback from both students and faculty.

About the Workshop

This is not a conventional academic programme. It is a hands-on, immersive training experience designed to help faculty integrate experiential learning methods into the way they teach ADR courses. Participants will:

  • Experience role plays as a student
  • Receive coaching in how to structure, facilitate, and debrief role plays as a teacher
  • Learn how to design, facilitate, and debrief simulations
  • Learn how to adapt U.S. style experiential teaching methods to the Indian context
  • Receive access to curated teaching materials and other resources developed by UC Law SF and CAMP Mediation
  • Work directly with leading educators and practitioners from the U.S. and India

The workshop will combine expert-led sessions on negotiation and mediation theory, simulations, collaborative exercises, and reflective discussions. The two-day in-person workshop will be preceded by 2–3 shorter, virtual sessions.

Participants who successfully complete the programme will receive a Certificate of Completion from NLSIU.

Who should Apply?

We seek a small, carefully selected cohort of participants currently teaching (or interested in teaching) ADR, mediation, or negotiation, including:

  • Law, Business, or other faculty
  • Administrators, Deans, or other faculty in leadership positions or responsible for curriculum design at their home institutions
  • Early-career academics with strong potential
  • Practitioners engaged in legal education

Resource Persons

Tara Olapally, International Lawyer and Mediator, CAMP Mediation

Tara Ollapally is an international lawyer and mediator with over 25 years of experience across the United States and India. She is the co-founder of CAMP Arbitration and Mediation Practice Pvt. Ltd., one of India’s pioneering private mediation institutions, and has been actively involved in advancing the mediation movement in India since 2015.
Tara regularly trains lawyers, mediators, and professionals in negotiation and mediation. She is part of the CAMP–Edwards Mediation Academy faculty, has taught at multiple law schools in India, and has served as Coordinator for the Mediating Disputes course at Harvard University.

Her mediation practice spans family, inheritance, commercial, construction, real estate, education, and consumer disputes. Her facilitative approach supports parties in reaching informed, collaborative outcomes grounded in mutual understanding.
Tara is licensed to practice law in New York and Bangalore, India, and holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School.

You can learn more about Tara at www.taraollapally.com

 

Corey Linehan | Associate Director, Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, UC Law SF

Corey Linehan is Associate Director of the Center for Negotiation & Dispute Resolution at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. He holds faculty appointments at Bay Path University and Georgetown University Law Center, where his teaching focuses on negotiation, communication, and legal practice. As a consultant with Triad Consulting, he works with organizations and leaders to more effectively address conflict.

Outside his teaching and training, Corey’s career has focused on negotiating complex public policy and government matters. He previously served in roles at the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Senate navigating interbranch conflicts and advancing legislation from drafting through enactment.

Corey holds a JD from Harvard Law School, MEd from the University of Missouri—St. Louis, and BSFS from Georgetown University. He is barred in California.

Read more: https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/corey-linehan

Dwight Golann | Research Professor at Suffolk University and UC Law SF

Dwight Golann has been a mediator and teacher of dispute resolution for more than thirty years. A Research Professor of Law at the University of California Law—San Francisco and Suffolk University—Boston and, he has led trainings for U.S. government agencies, the European Union, and ADR organizations on five continents.

Professor Golann has resolved hundreds of legal disputes and is the author of the American Bar Association’s leading books on mediation, Mediating Legal Disputes and Sharing a Mediator’s Powers. He formerly served as Chief of the Trial Division for the Massachusetts Attorney General, litigating cases at every level of the American court system.

He is the only person to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Civil Mediators and the ABA Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Dispute Resolution.

Read more at: https://www.suffolk.edu/academics/faculty/d/g/dgolann

Hiro N. Aragaki | Professor of Law and Faculty Director - Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, UC Law SF

Hiro N. Aragaki is a tenured professor of law at University of California College of Law, San Francisco and the Faculty Director of its Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. He is also a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS College of Law in London. His scholarship in ADR has won prestigious accolades and been published in top U.S. law journals, including flagship law reviews at NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and UCLA. He has consulted on ADR reform projects around the world, including as an Advisor to the Supreme Court of India’s Expert Committee on Mediation (tasked with drafting the bill that would become the Mediation Act, 2023) and as a mediation expert for the World Bank’s Business Ready Project.

He has served as a mediator and arbitrator for over twenty years, most recently with JAMS, is a Chartered Arbitrator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute (U.K.), and a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators (U.S.).

Read more at: https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/hiro-aragaki

Selection Process

Participation is competitive and by application only. Interested candidates may apply through the form Teaching Negotiation and Mediation. Applicants will be selected based on academic and professional background and demonstrated interest in ADR, including mediation.

Required Documents:

  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Statement of Purpose outlining motivation and expected outcomes from the workshop (in not more than 500 words)

Application Deadline

Last date to apply extended to May 27, 2026. Decisions will be made on a rolling basis until all seats are filled.

Apply online here.

Fee & Logistics

  • Workshop Fee: INR 15,000
  • Participants are responsible for travel and accommodation, the details of which will be shared with shortlisted participants

Session Agenda

Teaching ADR with experiential pedagogies

This two-day faculty development workshop will focus on the experiential pedagogies most suited to courses in alternative dispute resolution, especially those focused on negotiation and/or mediation. The two-day in-person workshop will be preceded by two virtual sessions, both up to two hours in length, that will ensure all participants arrive for the workshop with a rich understanding of the dispute resolution theory to which the pedagogies explored at the workshop are aligned. The in-person sessions will provide participants an opportunity not just to study new teaching tools but to practice implementing them in an interactive, experiential context.

Day 1 | July 11, 2026

Day 1: Morning Sessions

The workshop will open with an exploration of the purposes of experiential education and how the pedagogies to be explored over the weekend relate to a model ADR curriculum to which participants will have access. Participants will study and practice active listening frameworks that strong negotiators, mediators, and advocates in ADR processes use. The session will then also teach tools for providing students feedback in an experiential context, including distinctions between coaching and evaluative assessment.

Day 1: Afternoon Sessions

The afternoon sessions will focus on best practices for using roleplays to teach negotiation—including their purposes, how to set them up, and how to debrief them so that students’ experiences are translated into robust theoretical and practical takeaways. Participants will have the opportunity to practice debriefing a negotiation roleplay and use the listening and feedback frameworks presented in the morning session.

Day 2 | July 12, 2026

Day 2: Morning Sessions
The second day will open with an opportunity to recap and interrogate anew key themes from the first day’s sessions. The focus will then shift to deploying experiential techniques to teach mediation. Participants will lean and practice an exercise to help students distinguish mediation from arbitration as common alternative resolution pathways. They will then also have an opportunity to practice using demonstration videos to tech key structural elements of the mediation process.

Day 2: Afternoon Sessions
The final afternoon will begin with an opportunity for participants to learn and practice several exercises from a model ADR curriculum, including exercises on active listening and mediator selection. There will then be an opportunity to explore roleplay and debrief differences for mediation cases. The day will conclude with an opportunity to identify and articulate key takeaways from the weekend.

Contact Us

For any queries, please write to .

Related Link: The workshop is being organised as part of NLSIU’s Faculty Development Workshop Series. The first workshop was on ‘Teaching Criminal Law: Curriculum, Syllabus & Pedagogy,’ was held in November 2025.

Guest Lecture | ‘Legislating, Protecting and Institutionalising People’s Law’

Anahita Surya, Visiting Faculty at the National Law School of India University is bringing together Nikhil Dey, Rakshita Swamy, and Inayath Ali for a lecture on, “Legislating, Protecting, and Institutionalising People’s Law,” as per the details below:

Day & date: Thursday, April 23, 2026
Time: 2 – 4 PM
Venue: NAB-102, NLSIU

The speakers will speak about their experiences of building and sustaining people’s movements to legislate and subsequently protect people-centric laws such as MGNREGA, RTI and, more recently, laws related to gig workers. Drawing on grassroots social accountability movements, they will also discuss people-driven mechanisms for accountability and democratic engagement.

About the Speakers

Nikhil Dey is an Indian social activist and a Founding Member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). He has been at the forefront of several landmark campaigns, including the movements for the Right to Information (RTI) and the Right to Work (MGNREGA). Committed to transparency, accountability, and grassroots democracy, he continues to strengthen people’s participation in governance. In 2023, the U.S. State Department recognised him as an International Anti-Corruption Champion.

 

 

 

Rakshita Swamy is the Founder and Director of SAFAR. She, along with her colleagues and campaigns, works with Governments and Civil Society Organisations towards creating and institutionalising social accountability mechanisms. Her work is at the intersection of law, advocacy and research to help people claim their rights, improve the functioning of public institutions, and strengthen norms of democratic participatory governance. She also regularly teaches as a visiting faculty at NLSIU. She is associated with the Right to Information and Right to Work Campaigns.

 

 

 

Inayath Ali is the President of the Karnataka App-based Drivers Union and the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers. He is a prominent voice for gig workers’ rights and has founded one of the earliest unions of platform-based gig workers in the State. He is also a member of the First Gig Workers Welfare Board of the country, set up under the Karnataka Gig Workers Act.

NLS Faculty Seminar | ‘Confused Constitutional Morality: Evaluating the Supreme Court’s Equality Doctrine in a post-Anuj Garg Era’

This week’s faculty seminar featured presentation by Jai Chander Brunner, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU on ‘Confused Constitutional Morality: Evaluating the Supreme Court’s Equality Doctrine in a post-Anuj Garg Era.’

Abstract

During the hearings in the Sabarimala review matter, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta questioned how Navtej Johar could have struck down Section 377 IPC on the basis of constitutional morality.

Tushar Mehta reasoned that constitutional morality is not defined by the Constitution, leaving judges with vast discretion to give it any meaning. The concept is vague. Writing in 2023, Aparna Chandra foreshadowed that judicially evolved concepts such as constitutional morality and transformative constitutionalism were underspecified, and formed an unsound basis for the Court’s progressive judgments in cases such as Navtej Johar and Joseph Shine. Chandra cautioned that the Court had neither precisely defined these concepts nor articulated a method for defining these concepts. They are excessively open-textured and can be misused to serve unconstitutional ends. Though it is true that the Court has yet to specify the general boundaries of constitutional morality and transformative constitutionalism in all cases, this paper contends that they have acquired a specific usage in gender and sex equality cases — in particular, in cases where a law disadvantages a woman or a sexual and gender minority (“WSGM”).

Examining judgments that develop Anuj Garg, this paper reveals how the Court has referred to constitutional morality to invoke a higher degree of scrutiny. The Court has established a coherent method for invoking constitutional morality and transformative constitutionalism in a relatively consistent manner in cases where the impugned law disadvantages WSGM claimant groups: if the State justifies an exclusionary statute on the basis of popular morality, then the Court will lower the degree of deference to the State, even as far as reversing the presumption of constitutionality.

Photo gallery

‘Why Stories Matter: Law, Poetry and Indigenous Storytelling’ with Ali Cobby Eckermann and Merinda Dutton

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in collaboration with Australian Consulate-General in Bengaluru organised a discussion on ‘Why Stories Matter: Law, Poetry and Indigenous Storytelling,’ with Indigenous Australian writers, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Merinda Dutton on Wednesday April 22, 2026 at 5 PM.

This discussion brought together two powerful Indigenous Australian voices, those of Ali Cobby Eckermann and Merinda Dutton, in conversation with Radhika Chitkara, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU. Together, the speakers explored the power of storytelling to give voice and a seat at the table to communities who are often marginalised. Ali, an award-winning writer and poet, reflected on how her practice of poetry has shaped her identity, helped her find her voice, and offered her a place at the table. Merinda, an eminent lawyer and an emerging writer, reflected on law as a form of storytelling, and on how legal systems can enable Indigenous peoples to articulate lived experiences, assert their rights, and challenge dominant narratives. Our speakers explored the intersections between law and poetry, structure and creativity. The discussion invited students and scholars to reconsider how justice and voice are made and remade through stories.

About the Speakers

Ali Cobby Eckermann is an award-winning Yankunytjatjara poet. Her first collection little bit long time launched her literary career in 2009. In 2013 she won the Kenneth Slessor Prize and Book Of The Year (NSW) for Ruby Moonlight. In 2014, Ali was the inaugural recipient of the Tungkunungka Pintyanthi Fellowship at Adelaide Writers Week, and the first Aboriginal writer to attend the International Writing Program at University of Iowa. In 2017 she received a Windham Campbell Award for Poetry from Yale University. She was awarded a Literature Fellowship by the Australian Council for the Arts in 2018, and in 2019 was awarded a prestigious Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy. She is the Earth, a verse novel, won the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Book of the Year and Indigenous Writers Prize and was shortlisted for the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Stella Prize.

 

Merinda Dutton is a Gumbaynggirr and Barkindji woman emerging writer, First Nations critic, and the co-founder of Blackfulla Bookclub, an online community for First Nations stories. In 2019 Dutton was recognised for her legal aid work with Indigenous communities and awarded the National Indigenous Legal Professional of the Year.

 

 

 

 

Radhika Chitkara is Assistant Professor at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru. Her work is grounded in long-standing engagements with civil liberties, women’s, and land rights movements in northern and eastern India. As a legal researcher and human rights practitioner, she has undertaken primary and doctrinal research, investigations into rights violations, documentation, advocacy, direct legal representation, and legal literacy initiatives, both independently and in collaboration with civil society collectives and NGOs.

 

 

 

Photo gallery

‘Content Moderation – From Social Media Platforms To AI Chatbots: What is the Legal and Technological Framework? By Prof. Julia Hörnle | JSW Centre for the Future of Law

The JSW Centre for the Future of Law at NLSIU is organising a talk and discussion on the topic, “Content Moderation – From Social Media Platforms to AI Chatbots: What is the Legal and Technological Framework?” by Julia Hörnle, Professor of Internet Law at Queen Mary, University of London.

  • Day & date: Monday, April 27, 2026
  • Time: 2:00 – 3:00 PM
  • Venue: Allen and Overy Hall, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Campus 

The Talk is open to the public with mandatory registration here.

About the Speaker

Julia Hörnle, is Professor of Internet Law at Queen Mary, University of London. She has held the Chair of Internet Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London since 2013.

Her research areas are Cyberspace Law & Digital Rights, Internet Regulation, Jurisdiction of States Online and Online Dispute Resolution. She examines from a critical-analytical perspective the law related to the internet, cloud computing, social media and artificial intelligence. Her recent research focusses on the regulation of social media, the liability of intermediaries for user-generated content, and the use of artificial intelligence for content moderation online.

She has held visiting research and teaching positions at the at the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Criminal Law, at the Institute for Telecommunications and Media Law, University of Münster, at the European University Institute, Singapore Management University, the National University of Singapore and Georgetown University Washington DC.

She was educated at the University of Göttingen, the University of Leeds (1995) and the University of Hamburg, Germany (1996). She trained with the law firm of Eversheds in London and Brussels and qualified as a solicitor in 1999. She gained a University of London PhD in 2008. Read more.

 

Alumni Reunion | BA LLB Class of 2015

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU)< Bengaluru hosted a campus reunion for the BA LL.B. (Hons.) Batch of 2015 on Saturday, April 25, 2026, as the cohort marked ten years since graduating from the University. The reunion brought alumni back to campus for a special occasion of reflection, reconnection, and celebration, offering an opportunity to revisit the spaces, memories, and friendships that shaped their time at NLSIU.

Prof. (Dr.) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, NLSIU addressed the gathering virtually while the introductory remarks were delivered by Dr. Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Registrar, NLSIU. Earlier, the alumni were welcomed by Deepti Soni, Director, Communications and External Relations, NLSIU. Their remarks acknowledged the achievements of the batch and the continuing role of alumni in strengthening the NLSIU community.

Over the course of the day, alumni reconnected with batchmates, faculty members, and other members of the NLS community, renewing friendships and celebrating the enduring bonds formed during their years at the University. Filled with conversations, shared memories, and nostalgia, the gathering was a reminder of the strong sense of community that continues to define the NLSIU alumni network long after graduation.

Schedule

  • 11:00 am – 11:30 am: Arrival
  • 11:30 am – 11:45 am: Welcome Address
  • 11:45 am – 12:15 pm: Batch interaction
  • 12:15 pm – 1:00pm: Interaction with students
  • 1:00 pm – 1:10 pm: Group Photo Session
  • 1:10 pm – 2:30 pm: Lunch (Training Centre)
  • 2:30 pm onwards: Campus Walk

Photo gallery

‘The Ethics and Morality of Indian Politics’ | 6th Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar Annual Memorial Lecture

The Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion (CSSI), at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru is organising the 6th Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar Annual Memorial Lecture on April 17, 2026, at 5.10 PM. The lecture will be delivered by Dr. Narendar Pani, Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru on the topic ‘The Ethics and Morality of Indian Politics’.

About the Lecture Series

This memorial lecture was initiated by the Institute of Public Policy with the support of Prof. Adbul Aziz, Chair on Religious Minorities, NLSIU in memory of his father Sri. Hunasikote Abdul Ghaffar. Mr. Ghaffar passed away in 1982 in Hunasikote at the age of 74.

The first lecture in this series was delivered by Prof. Karkala Seetharam on April 3, 2019 on the topic “Human Rights as Public Policy.”

About the Speaker

Dr. Narendar Pani is a Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, where he is also the Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Heads the Inequality and Human Development Programme. After a doctorate in economics, he moved into transdisciplinary research which allowed him to explore diverse, but interconnected, aspects of Indian reality. His work over the last four decades has ranged from agrarian reform to urban processes, confronting challenges of the method along the way. His books include “Inclusive Economics: Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy” and “The City as Action: Retheorizing Urban Studies” (forthcoming).

Conference on ‘Addressing the Contract Labour System and Contractualisation of Workforce’ | By Centre for Labour Studies, NLSIU

The Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) at NLSIU is organising a day-long conference on “Addressing the Contract Labour System and Contractualisation of Workforce” as per the details below:

  • Day & date: Saturday, April 11, 2026
  • Time: 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM
  • Venue: Conference Hall, Training Centre, NLSIU

Open to the public Register here.

The conference will bring together leading scholars, trade union representatives, lawyers, and workers to examine the rapid expansion of contract labour in India and its implications for job quality, labour rights, and social equity.

Session Details 

Session 1:  The Political Economy and Working of Contract Labour in India (10:30 to 12:30 PM)

Across the world, standard forms of employment – characterised by secure tenure, formal contracts, and access to social security – are steadily declining. In their place, non-standard forms of employment such as contractual work and gig-based work are expanding rapidly. In the Global South, including India, such forms of employment have long been widespread. However, the growing reliance on contract labour – one of the most prominent forms of non-standard employment – raises important questions about job quality and workers’ rights.

Governments and employers frequently justify the use of contract labour as essential for flexibility, productivity, and employment generation, often claiming that rigid labour laws limit firms’ ability to grow. Yet research suggests that contract employment is also used to weaken the bargaining power of permanent workers and reduce labour costs. The Economic Survey 2015–16 observed that states with more rigid labour laws actually witnessed faster growth in contract labour, challenging the claim that labour flexibility alone explains this expansion.

Evidence shows deep inequalities between regular and contract workers. A study by V.V. Giri found that contract workers in private establishments earned only 68% of the wages of regular workers, while in public employment they earned just 45%, highlighting substantial wage gaps. Contract workers also face limited access to creches, canteens, and social security, while hiring practices reflect sharp caste and gender biases, with women disproportionately employed in low-paying contractual roles such as housekeeping and sweeping.

Despite these challenges, workers and unions have resisted through strikes, protests, and legal interventions, sometimes achieving regularisation. Yet the overall trend remains concerning: the 2022-23 Enterprise Survey reports that 43% of Central Public Sector employees are contract workers, up from 19% in 2015, while the Annual Survey of Industries (2021-22) shows 40% of industrial workers are contract-based.

This panel will bring together workers, union leaders, and economists to explore the realities of contract labour in India. It will examine structural inequalities and forms of resistance, providing a critical overview that sets the stage for subsequent discussions on conditions of work, labour jurisprudence, and pathways for strengthening workers’ rights and protections.

Speakers:

  • Rajesh Jospeh, Azim Premji University
  • Ramadevi, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Pourakarmika Union
  • Vijayakumar,  HAL Contract Workers’ Association
  • Karuna Dietrich Wielenga, Azim Premji University
  • Maitreyi Krishnan, AICCTU (Moderator)

Session 2: Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code (OSH Code) and Contract Labour (12:45PM to 1:45PM)

In 2025, the Union Government notified four labour codes, consolidating and replacing a wide range of labour laws that had governed workers’ rights for over a century. Among the laws subsumed was the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, which, despite its limitations, had provided an important framework for regulating contract labour. Under the new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, many of these protections have been significantly weakened.

The OSH Code raises the threshold for its applicability, narrows the scope of regulation, and allows the use of contract labour even in core and permanent activities. It specifically keeps out certain works from the definition of core and permanent work, and these include works performed by historically marginalized sections of society.

The OSH Code also reduces certain employer liabilities toward workers. Collectively, these changes raise serious concerns about the future of decent work, job security, and workplace protections for contract workers.

This panel will examine in detail the implications of the newly enacted OSH Code for workers, highlight its differences from the previous legal framework, and discuss its potential impact on judicial interpretations and the broader jurisprudence of labour law.

Speakers:

  • Meenakshi Sundaram, CITU
  • Maitreyi Krishnan, AICCTU
  • Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Center for Labour Studies, NLSIU (Moderator)

Session 3: Contract Labour and the Courts: The Evolving Jurisprudence of Regularisation (2:30PM to 3: 45 PM)

For over a quarter of a century, an important part of labour’s struggle against contractualisation has unfolded in the courts, particularly before the Supreme Court and various High Courts across India. In disputes concerning both public and private employment, the judiciary has often been the final forum where workers seek recognition of their claims for regularisation.

Two landmark judgments frequently cited as restricting the rights of contract workers are Steel Authority of India Ltd. v. National Union Waterfront Workers (2001) and Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Uma Devi (2006). In the first case, the Supreme Court held that contract workers do not have an automatic right to absorption into permanent employment. In the second, the Court ruled that the regularisation of ad hoc or temporary employees could amount to granting “backdoor entry” into government service, thereby significantly narrowing the scope for regularisation.

In the years since these decisions, however, courts – including the Supreme Court – have revisited and interpreted aspects of these rulings in more nuanced ways. Judgments such as Jaggo v. Union of India, Shirpal & Another v. Nagar Nigam Ghaziabad, and the recent decision in Dharam Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh have softened some of the rigid implications of earlier rulings. These decisions have carved out limited exceptions and created some space for recognising the rights of daily-wage and contractual workers.

At the same time, the legal terrain continues to evolve. A case currently pending before the Supreme Court, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation v. Krishnan Gopal, raises the important question of whether labour and industrial courts have the authority to order regularisation when there are no sanctioned posts.

This panel seeks to unpack the complex and contested jurisprudence surrounding contract labour through a discussion of key court decisions. Bringing together labour lawyers and trade union leaders, it will examine how courts currently approach demands for regularisation and what these developments mean for workers’ struggles today.

Speakers:

  • Sudha Bharadwaj, Trade Unionist and Labour Lawyer, High Court of Bombay
  • Muralidhara, Labour Lawyer, High Court of Karnataka
  • Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Center for Labour Studies, NLSIU
  • Avani Chokshi, AICCTU (Moderator)

Session 4: Contract Labour after the Labour Codes: Regulation and Path Forward (4PM to 5:30PM)

Despite the notification of the four labour codes by the Union Government, considerable ambiguity persists regarding their implementation. Many State Governments are currently in the process of formulating and notifying rules to operationalise these codes, while also considering alternative measures including passing state-specific legislation to address potential adverse impacts. This includes introducing additional legal protections for workers who may be excluded from the scope of the new framework.

Such state-level interventions are not unprecedented; under the earlier labour regime, states such as Tamil Nadu and Assam enacted laws providing for the regularization of workers after a defined period of service – protections that are not uniformly available to workers in other states across the country.

In this context, the panel aims to bring together representatives from the judiciary, trade unions, workers, and academia to reflect on the implications of the new legal framework governing contract labour and to discuss possible responses to the challenges it presents including considering the proposal to submit a bill on the regularization of employment to the Government of Karnataka. The panel will also briefly examine and deliberate on provisions in the model law on regularisation drafted for submission to the Karnataka Government.

Speakers:

  • VJK Nair, CITU
  • Clifton D’ Rozario, AICCTU
  • Babu Mathew, AITUC (Moderator)

Film Screenings and Session with Paromita Vohra | By NLS Law and Society Archives & NLS Feminist Alliance

The NLS Law and Society Archives, in collaboration with the NLS Feminist Alliance (NLSFA), is organising screenings of two films by Paromita Vohra as per the details below:

Screening of Working Girls

  • Day & date: Friday, April 17, 2026
  • Time: 5:00 PM
  • Venue: Allen & Overy Hall, NLSIU

(Open to the public with mandatory registration here.) 

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, offering an opportunity to reflect on the film’s themes and its wider feminist and political stakes.

About Working Girls

Working Girls is a vivid, genre-defying film that travels across India to uncover the invisible, yet essential labour performed by women. Moving through Kolkata, Mumbai, Shillong, Latur, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Madurai, the film brings us into the lives of domestic workers, farmers, ASHA workers, dancers, mothers, sex workers, and organisers whose work sustains society but is rarely recognised.

Blending sharp humour, rich music, and a deep engagement with law, gender, and history, the film challenges dominant ideas of labour, value, and visibility. Created in collaboration with the Laws of Social Reproduction Project based at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, the film invites us to rethink what it means to work and who gets to be seen as a worker.

In the run-up to the public screening, there will be a showcase of another of Paromita’s films:

Screening of Unlimited Girls 

  • Day & date: Wednesday, April 15, 2026
  • Time: 7:30 PM
  • Venue: NAB 102, NLSIU

(Open only to the NLS Community) 

About Unlimited Girls (2002):

The landmark documentary by Paromita Vohra, Unlimited Girls is a sharp, playful, and incisive exploration of feminism, media, and popular culture in urban India. Blending documentary with satire, it captures the contradictions, aspirations, and negotiations that shape young women’s lives, making it as relevant today as when it was first released. Watch the trailer here.

The second screening will take place as per the details below:

About the Filmmaker

Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker and writer whose work spans documentaries, television, digital media, and art installations. Her films, including Unlimited Girls, Q2P, Where’s Sandra?, Morality TV and the Loving Jehad, and Partners in Crime, are known for their sharp feminist insight, wit, and formal experimentation. She has also written for cinema, including Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), and created the comic Priya’s Mirror and the play Ishqiya Dharavi Ishtyle.

In 2015, she founded Agents of Ishq, a pioneering digital platform that has transformed conversations on sex, love, and desire in India. Across her work, Vohra brings together humour, critique, and a deeply sensuous engagement with questions of gender, labour, and everyday life. She has edited Love, Sex And India: The Agents Of Ishq Anthology (Context, 2026) Her weekly column Paronormal Activity ran for 15 years in the Sunday Midday.

NLS Faculty Seminar | The Trial Process Becomes Very Alien: Lawyers’ Imagination of the Legal Process in Contemporary Delhi

This week’s faculty seminar featured presentation by Dr. Mayur R Suresh, University Research Fellow, NLSIU on ‘The Trial Process Becomes Very Alien: Lawyers’ Imagination of the Legal Process in Contemporary Delhi.’ The paper has been co-authored by Fariya Yesmin and Lubhyathi Rangarajan.

Abstract

How do lawyers understand legality in contemporary India? The authors examine the experiences of lawyers in Delhi, who defend people accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), statutes increasingly deployed to target dissent and minority groups. Drawing on in-depth interviews, these trials produce a sense of normlessness — where foundational assumptions about rules, processes, and institutional roles collapse.

Lawyers describe an “alien” legal world marked by unpredictability, an absence of established procedure, and blurred boundaries between judges, prosecutors, and police. While ordinary cases retain a sense of normality, UAPA and PMLA cases destabilise imaginations of the legal process, compelling lawyers to speculate on motives and majoritarian influences. The authors explore how lawyers respond through insistence on procedural norms and strategies to mitigate harm to clients. These narratives illuminate the transformation of legality into a contingent, shape-shifting form of power, challenging deterministic accounts of authoritarian legality.

Photo gallery