News Type: News

Call for Applications | Development Officer

NLSIU invites online applications from accomplished professionals for the position of Development Officer (1 vacancy). This is a full-time position, based out of the NLSIU campus in Bengaluru involving field and desk work, and will report to the Director – Communications and External Relations, NLSIU.

About NLSIU

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) was established in 1987 to be a pioneer in legal education. Over the last three decades the University has consistently been an innovative leader in legal education and research in India and has been ranked First among Law Universities in the National Institute Ranking Framework for the last seven years

Role Description

A. Qualifications

Essential

  • Graduate degree in any discipline with aggregate 55% marks. Provided, for candidates with benchmark disabilities, the minimum aggregate mark is 50%.

Desirable

  • Post Graduate Degree/Diploma in Public Relations, Communications, Development, Social Sciences or a related field.

B. Experience and Skills

  • Minimum 8 years of overall work experience with at least 4 years in fundraising, programme development, philanthropic initiatives or a related field;
  • Excellent ability to work with and manage a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and forge partnerships;
  • Excellent research and communication skills;
  • Strong networking abilities;
  • Strong presentation skills with expertise in MS PPT working knowledge of Canva would be helpful.
  • Excellent drafting skills;
  • Strong budget management skills, organisation skills and IT
    skills;
  • Excellent ability to work effectively and constructively;
  • Knowledge of Kannada is a bonus for this role;
  • Skilled in MS Office.

C. Role and Responsibilities

The Development Officer will report to the Director Communications and External Relations.

The Development Officer will be responsible for undertaking the
following tasks:

  • Be responsible for developing the strategic fundraising plans of the University;
  • Be responsible for building relationships with prospective donors and grantees across multiple sectors and communicating with the broader public, alumni and internal teams;
  • To develop and implement strategies and internal processes for programme development and grant management across all research and University development projects;
  • To identify and explore prospective donor pools, to draft tailored messages, and to cultivate donor relationships with the goal of securing financial support;
  • To write and negotiate funding proposals for potential donors and work closely with the University academic staff and legal team;
  • To identify and develop opportunities for programmatic support;
  • To maintain external stakeholder relationships related to programme development;
  • To set up internal processes for managing fundraising lifecycles and donor relations including MOU/contract closure and reporting;
  • To draft, press releases in consultation with the communications team as required;
  • To prepare quarterly budgets and establish and maintain reports for funders;
  • To implement a variety of marketing strategies and promotional campaigns towards fundraising.

D. Tenure

Permanent basis till the age of superannuation i.e. 60 years, subject to confirmation after the satisfactory completion of two year’s probation.

Selection Process

  • Selection will take place in two parts.
    a. Part 1 shall consist of review of applications by the University. Upon review of applications, candidates will be shortlisted in a 1:5 ratio as against the number of vacancies for the Interview round (Part 2).
    b. Part 2 will be an interview round wherein the Interview Selection Panel shall score candidates out of a total of 50 marks for selection to the post.
  • NLSIU reserves the right to have more than one round of interview either in person or over video conferencing and to conduct independent background checks on the candidates.
  • NLSIU reserves the right to request for references from people who are not listed in the application
    form but would be familiar with the candidate’s previous work.

How To Apply?

Please use the Google form here to apply.

Learn more about the role and application process here.

Deadline

Interested individuals are requested to go through the University’s website, fill in the Application Form and upload the certificates to support their claim for educational qualifications, age, experience etc. The deadline to submit the application has been extended to June 9, 2025 (5 pm IST). View Corrigendum.

NLS Faculty Seminar | ‘Equality in Access: Reviewing India’s Legal Aid Framework’

In this week’s faculty seminar, Samantha Chacko, a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar affiliated to NLS, presented her paper titled “Equality in Access: Reviewing India’s Legal Aid Framework.” The seminar was held on May 7, 2025, at 4 pm, in the Ground Floor Conference Hall at NLSIU’s Training Centre.

Abstract

Article 39(A) of the Indian Constitution guarantees citizens access to legal aid. At its core, this Article solidifies each citizen’s right to access justice. Often, the individuals seeking this kind of assistance are litigants preparing for cases addressing critical issues. Without proper access to legal aid, people can lose their homes, families, or livelihoods. In 2022, India’s government-based legal aid program, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), reported that only 61% of those who visited legal services clinics throughout India actually received legal assistance. Without proper access to justice, no legal system can be considered just.

There have been few studies that address the gender gap in legal aid services, and even fewer that exclusively focus on accessibility to legal resources and services categorized by demographic. One such study, however, the 2016 DAKSH Access to Justice survey, found that only 14% of all litigants in India are women. There is little explanation for this gender gap in legal participation, and it remains unclear whether women are actually receiving the legal assistance they are constitutionally entitled to and their subsequent ability to navigate the Indian justice system successfully. This research was designed to identify and contextualize the causal factors perpetuating the gender gap in access to justice within the Indian legal aid framework.

Reflections from the Speaker

“It was an honour to present my research at the Faculty Seminar at NLSIU. The faculty feedback was very insightful and will help me develop my paper and future research. I have learned so much as a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar at NLS. I am very grateful to my academic supervisor, Dr. VS Elizabeth, for all her support throughout my grant. Ultimately, I hope this research serves as a foundation for continued awareness about the status of accessibility to justice in India and the USA.”

NLS Faculty Dr. Sushmita Pati Awarded Grant by India Foundation for Arts

Dr. Sushmita Pati, Associate Professor of Political Science at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, has been awarded a grant from the India Foundation for Arts (IFA) for a project where she is the co-coorindator along with Sarbani Sharma, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Social Anthropology at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

About the Project

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Arts Projects (Research and Practice), will explore Bengaluru’s urban transformation through oral histories of retired Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) managers, highlighting their experiences of deindustrialisation, shifting identities and nostalgia in the post-liberalisation era of the city. Using a multidisciplinary approach, including social sciences research methods, illustrations and creative mapping the project will culminate in a zine.

This project will examine the urban transformation of Bengaluru through the experiences of retired middle and upper-management employees from the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) that once thrived in the city. The project will foreground the social and personal histories of those who lived through the changes in Bengaluru that remain unexplored, as against the transformation of the city from a sleepy pensioner’s paradise to the Silicon Valley of the subcontinent, which is well documented in terms of economic and infrastructural shifts. The senior managers, who were born in the 1950s, close on the heels of the Midnight’s Children, and were brought up in the Nehruvian Modern, built their lives around state-led industrialisation, but lived on to witness their workplaces decline with the rise of privatisation and globalisation. Their narratives will provide a unique perspective on urban memory, industrial decline, and the shifting socio-political fabric of the city.

The research process of the project will be through oral histories and participant observations, to uncover how these men recall their neighbourhoods, workplaces, and social networks in PSU colonies like ITI Layout, HAL Layout or BHEL Layout and how their experiences shaped their identities in their contemporary life. A key motivation for this project is the lived experiences of the Project Coordinators in PSU townships in Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh, which paralleled Bengaluru’s industrial culture. This insider perspective of a transitional nation will allow for a critical, reflexive approach to understand class, masculinity, and nostalgia about Bengaluru, set in a post-liberalisation India. Through this research, how deindustrialisation reshaped urban identities in Bengaluru, will be illuminated as a broader narrative through the perspectives of the retired PSU employees who straddle both privilege and displacement, as a study that will highlight an underrepresented group. The project will also contribute to ‘masculinity studies’, examining how elderly, upper-caste, and upper-class men perform authority in urban spaces, with special emphasis on Bengaluru. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will aim to contribute to urban studies, political economy, while fostering a deeper public understanding of the changing social fabric of Bengaluru. The Project Coordinators will collaborate with an illustrator, to visually reconstruct PSU neighbourhoods and their transformations, in order to make the research accessible beyond traditional academic formats. Public lectures and interactive sessions with the illustrator will attempt to bridge scholarly analysis with broader civic engagement. To equally engage with both academic and public audiences, the project will culminate in a zine titled Good’ol Bangalore, combining oral histories with illustrations and creative maps.

The outcome of the project will be an illustrated zine, public lectures and interactive sessions. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be physical and digital copies of the zine, and audio-visual or photographic documentation of the public lectures and interactive sessions.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Project 560 programme in the manner in which it attempts to position Bengaluru as a lens to examine postcolonial economic transitions, class dynamics, and urban memory, through an intimate archive of lived history, of the retired male PSU employees, whose life has been mirroring the transitions of the nation, reflecting on the city’s past and its uncertain future.

This project is also supported by BNP Paribas India Foundation. (Source: India Foundation for Arts)

NLSIU-SIAC Collaboration: Strengthening Academia-Legal Practice Ties

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), held the second Annual Arbitration Lecture on Saturday, April 26, 2025.  Ms. Lucy Reed, President of the Court of Arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre delivered the lecture on: ‘Five Things You Think You Know About Arbitration, But You Don’t.’

In the week preceding the lecture, the University and SIAC also conducted the second edition of its elective course module, ‘SIAC and Institutional Arbitration,’ at the NLSIU campus. The lecture and the module were conducted as part of the ongoing Memorandum of Understanding between NLSIU and SIAC.

Speaking on the occasion, Lucy Reed said: “For this year’s lecture, I thought I would take a different approach, a more practical, practice oriented approach. Specifically, I wanted to address what I see after these 40 years, as some of the basic misconceptions about real life in international arbitration. And I also took the opportunity to thread in some of the new 2025 SIAC rules which we enacted, upon demand of users mostly, but which show the evolution of international commercial arbitration over the years.”

Watch the full video here:

Highlights from the module

The elective course, held between April 22 and April 25, 2025, saw the participation of 40 law students, within as well as outside the NLS community, and professional practitioners.

The participants attended various sessions, including ‘SIAC’s Role in the Constitution of the Arbitral Tribunal’ by the course convenor, Vivekananda Neelakantan, Registrar, SIAC; Shivam Patanjali, Deputy Counsel, SIAC; and Steffi Mary Punnose, Strategy & Development Manager (South Asia), SIAC.

There were sessions by seasoned practitioners such as Ila Kapoor, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, who spoke to the attendees about ‘Jurisdictional Objections, Consolidation and Joinder, Emergency Arbitrator, Expedited Procedure, Early Dismissal, Streamlined Procedure;’ Ankit Goyal, Partner – Foreign Law, Allen & Gledhill LLP, who delivered a talk on ‘Arbitral Proceeding;’ and Ashish Chugh, Principal, Baker & McKenzie Wong & Leow, on the ‘Award and Costs of the Arbitration.’

NLS alumni Promod Nair, Senior Advocate, High Court of Karnataka, and Vijayendra Pratap Singh, Member, SIAC Court of Arbitration; Senior Partner & Head – Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice (Delhi), AZB & Partners, conducted sessions on ‘SIAC, Investor State Dispute Settlement and Alternative Dispute Resolution.’

Here is the detailed syllabus and schedule.

Reflections from the module

Speaking to us, Mr. Vivekananda Neelakantan, Registrar, SIAC, said:

“The Singapore International Arbitration Centre is conducting this module on SIAC and institutional arbitration for the second year at the National Law School of India University, and it has been our pleasure to helm this course and engage with the students and others attending.

For the SIAC, training and education on international arbitration has always been a high priority. India is an important jurisdiction for SIAC and therefore, to have this opportunity to be here in Bengaluru at the National Law School, is a great privilege.

Personally, as registrar of the SIAC and an alumnus of the National Law School (NLS BA LLB 2006), it has been my pleasure to be back here on campus and to be talking to all the students.”

Dr. Harisankar K Sathyapalan, Associate Professor of Law; BA LLB (Hons) Chair; Faculty In Charge, D C Singhania Chair on Alternative Dispute Resolution, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, said:

“The partnership between the National Law School of India University and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre has been a fine example of a common saying- bridging the gap between academia and legal practice. In the past two academic years, we delivered a specially curated module on institutional arbitration for NLS students and the wider arbitration community in the country.

The University also hosted two leading voices in international arbitration in our Annual Arbitration Lecture series with SIAC. These initiatives underscore the National Law School’s commitment to providing a truly global legal education.”

Featured in the press:

Deccan Herald | ‘International arbitration is less about speed and cost and more about trust and enforceability: Lucy Reed‘

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Beyond Algorithms: AI, Intellectual Property, and Indian Courts | NLSIR’s Special Blog Series

NLSIR announces the publication of its latest Special Blog Series, entitled “Beyond Algorithms: AI, Intellectual Property, and Indian Courts.” The series features 5 articles from prominent academics and practitioners on themes in the realm of AI & Law, with a special focus on Intellectual Property.

About the Series

AI in the courtroom is no longer a distant possibility—it’s here. At a recent conference at the Kenyan Supreme Court, Justice B.R. Gavai cautioned that AI-driven legal research isn’t foolproof, with tools like ChatGPT fabricating case citations. As AI’s presence in legal institutions grows, its impact and associated risks have both become impossible to ignore.

This concern is particularly relevant given the rising global debate on the role of AI in the judiciary. Closer to home, the Bangalore bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal recently issued a tax order that cited completely fictitious judgments. It used AI not merely as an assistive tool but as the sole basis for its legal reasoning. Conversely, the high courts of Manipur and Punjab & Haryana have used AI strictly for research purposes, ensuring that human judges retain full control over decision-making, a point also supported by Justice Gavai. This difference highlights an ongoing dilemma—on one hand, AI has the potential to make judicial processes more efficient and less burdensome; on the other, it comes with significant risks, including hallucination (the generation of incorrect or misleading outputs) and IP violations. This underscores a broader question: How should the Indian legal system approach AI?

Beyond the courtroom, AI is also reshaping intellectual property law. From disputes over the ownership and attribution of AI-generated works to questions about rights over training data, AI is reshaping some of IP’s major foundational assumptions. The ongoing litigation between ANI and OpenAI has further exposed gaps in existing legal frameworks, highlighting the tension between human creativity and machine-generated content. Traditional copyright and patent laws—centred on originality, authorship, and inventorship—are being tested as AI systems autonomously generate text, music, and art. Yet, these technologies rely on human-created datasets, raising complex concerns about fair use, attribution, compensation, and moral rights of the artists.

Recognising the urgency of these issues, NLSIR Online is launching a special series examining the intersection of AI, intellectual property rights, and the Indian judicial system. This series aims to foster a nuanced dialogue on how India’s legal system can navigate this technological shift while upholding its core values of human creativity, judicial discretion, and access to justice.

The full issue is available here.

The individual pieces are linked below:

  1. Amarnath Sehgal in the Age of Artificial Intelligence – Professor (Dr.) Mira T Sundara Rajan
  2. How AI is Transforming Access to Justice in India  – Sachin Malhan, Varun Hemachandran & Smita Gupta
  3. Data-Scraping: The Third Point on the IP-AI triangle – Sriya Sridhar
  4. Generative AI and the Music Industry: The Emerging Copyright Conundrum in India – Professor Subhajit Basu & Jui Dharwadkar
  5. Beyond Stare Decisis: An AI Preparedness Framework For The Judiciary-Hemanth Bharatha Chakravarthy. Part I & Part II.

 

Request for Proposals | Supply and Installation of Additional Furniture for Hostels at NLSIU

The National Law School of India University (“NLSIU”) established under the National Law School of India Act, 1986 solicits proposals from qualified bidders for Supply and Installation of Additional Furniture for Hostels at NLSIU in accordance with specifications and requirements mentioned in the notification below.

Date of Issue of Tender: 28.04.2025
Last Date for Submission of Technical and Commercial Bids: Up to 5.00 PM on 09.05.2025

Note: Technical and Commercial bids should be submitted separately, in separate sealed envelopes.

For more details along with the terms and conditions, please read the following:

  1. Tender Document
  2. Annexure 1: BOQ for Supply and Installation of Additional Furniture

 

Univ Week 2025 | NLSIU’s Annual Intra-University Cultural Fest

We are excited to announce that Univ Week, the annual intra-university cultural fest, is being organised from April 27 to May 3, 2025 by the Cultural and Fine Arts Committee at NLSIU. Univ Week ’25 Brochure is available here.

The detail schedule of events is available below.

Day 1: April 27, 2025
Music Competition: 5pm to 9pm

An inter-batch competition where participants were invited to perform songs of any genre, in any language – we had a huge turnout of vocalists and instrumentalists playing popular Eastern and Western tunes. This year, we had added a theme-based element to the competition, with each batch representing an era (1960s,70s, etc.) for performance.

Day 2: April 28, 2025
Fashion Show Competition: 7pm to 9pm

From sustainable clothing to desi maximalism, from Unity in Diversity to Re-gender — this year’s Fashion Show is a celebration of bold designs, conscious choices, and self-expressions that challenge norms and redefine the runway.

Day 3: April 29. 2025
Pop Culture Night: 7pm to 9 pm

A night for cinephiles, this event consists of quizzes, food, music, and games for those who enjoy everything cinema.

Day 4: April 30, 2025
Art Mela: 2pm to 5pm

Participants display their skills in fine arts through a variety of competitions including mehendi, hand and face painting, and graffiti making.

Beyond the Bell: 5.15pm to 6.45pm

This informal gathering is envisioned as an opportunity to connect in a relaxed and engaging environment, featuring student-led activity stalls, and interactive games, etc.

Master Chef: 7pm to 9pm

An addition to the usual UnivWeek events, participants are invited to prepare their favourite delicacies and drinks.

Day 5: May 1, 2025
Quiz Whiz: 10am to 5pm

From cinema and pop culture and music to history, politics, and everything in between — Quiz-Whiz is where sharp minds, quick reflexes, and obscure facts collide in a high-energy battle of wits.

Day 6: May 3, 2025
Dance Competition: 4pm to 9pm

An inter-batch competition where participants are invited to show-off their dancing skills in a variety of Eastern and Western dance forms – both solo and in groups.

Special Seminar by NLS Faculty Vijayambar R | ‘Understanding Women’s Participation in Economic Activities through Time Use Surveys’

NLS Faculty Dr. Vijayamba R delivered a seminar on ‘Understanding Women’s Participation in Economic Activities through Time Use Surveys’ at the School of Economics and Public Policy, RV University, on Thursday, April 24, 2025.

Abstract

Women’s underestimation in economic activities is a long standing problem in official statistics in India. Unlike the labour force surveys, time-use surveys (TUS) collect information on different activities without asking the respondent to report as a worker or not. They provide data on the time spent on various activities throughout the day. This lecture provided an overview of time use surveys in India, and presented some interesting numbers on women’s participation in economic activities and the time spent using TUS 2019 and  TUS 2024. Using the recently released Time Use Survey 2024 data, estimates found that 35 per cent of the rural women are engaged in economic activity. They were posed against the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2024 numbers and reasons for the differences between the two sources were explored.

Related News

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Meet Our New Director – PACE | Vikas Chaturvedi

We extend a warm welcome to Mr. Vikas Chaturvedi who joins us as Director – Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) at NLSIU. PACE offers 10 online and hybrid programmes across various domains of the law to as wide a range of learners as possible. It also offers Executive Education programmes in hybrid, online, and in-person formats.

Vikas Chaturvedi has nearly three decades of experience across higher education, management consulting and line roles in consumer products.

In his previous role at IIM Ahmedabad, Vikas was the COO for their Executive Education programmes and the Director for the Dubai centre. In all the years of Vikas’s tenure, IIMA executive education led positions in FT rankings.

Vikas has also worked at Gallup, where he held key roles such as senior practice leader in Asia. His role involved strategic planning and organic growth consulting and advising blue-chip client management teams across the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. At Gallup, Vikas worked with leadership teams across 120 firms worldwide.

He regularly represented IIMA and Gallup at key forums and is a published author for Gallup. He has also been published in The Economic Times and HT Mint.

Vikas has a Bachelor’s degree in History from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, a Master’s Degree in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and an MBA from Pittsburg State University, USA.

Vikas enjoys long drives, reading, and is a lifelong fan of the Chelsea football club.

He can be reached at .

Call for Applications | Assistant Professor – Law (2-Year Contract)

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) invites applications from well-qualified individuals, dedicated to academic teaching, scholarship and institutional service for the following position:

  • Assistant Professor (Law) (2-Year Contract) | 10 Vacancies (Unreserved)
    Subjects: All major Law subjects including Family Law, Labour Law, Legal Theory, Law and Technology, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Torts, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Company Law, Public International Law, Human Rights, Jurisprudence, Environmental Law, Taxation Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Conflict of Laws, Financial Sector Regulation, International Trade Law, Professional Ethics.

About the Role

Assistant Professors (Contract) are full-time members of University departments/faculties. They will join an inter-disciplinary, intellectually stimulating environment and collaborate with highly accomplished colleagues for research and teaching.

Duties and responsibilities

  • To teach undergraduate and/or graduate courses.
  • To design and deliver lectures or classes during term time to undergraduates and/or graduates; and to produce lecture notes, course materials, and reading lists as required and set and grade assignments and exams. In addition, to design and deliver lectures and classes over the year in the University’s Professional and Continuing Education department.
  • To hold consultation with students and provide feedback on their work.
  • To liaise, as required, with other faculty teaching the subject.
  • To undertake an appropriate share of other Faculty administrative duties, dependent on career stage, including service on committees.
  • To participate in the governance, intellectual life, and academic activities of the University.

Selection Criteria

The application will be judged only against the criteria which are set out below. You should ensure that your application shows clearly how your skills and experience meet these criteria. NLSIU is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our institution.

Essential Qualifications

  • A master’s degree with at least 55% marks (or an equivalent grade in a point-scale, wherever the grading system is followed). A relaxation of 5% may be provided at the graduate and master’s level for the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Differently abled categories for the purpose of eligibility and for assessing good academic record during direct recruitment to teaching positions.
  • Communication, interpersonal, time management and organizational skills necessary to undertake pastoral care and administration for both undergraduate and graduate students and the ability to work with students from diverse backgrounds to enable them to reach their full potential.

Desirable Qualifications

  • Candidates who have published in high-quality academic journals will be preferred.
  • Candidates with demonstrated academic excellence in their University education will be preferred.
  • Candidates should demonstrate evidence of the skills needed for higher education teaching and a research record commensurate with the stage of their career.
  • Candidates should demonstrate their commitment to the University’s goals and objectives.

How to apply

Interested candidates are required to submit applications through online mode only by completing the Application Form and uploading copies of all required certificates. Without these certificates, the application form will not be considered. Your application must include:

  1. A statement of purpose of not more than 800 words.
  2. A full CV that includes a publications list.
  3. A sample or samples or written work, published or unpublished (co-authored pieces should be identified as such). In the case of pieces of written work exceeding 20,000 words, candidates should indicate which part or parts they wish to draw to the attention of the selection committee.
  4. Details of two referees.

The last date to submit applications for all positions is April 25, 2025 (5 PM). View the official notification.

Note: Only applications that are submitted through the successful completion and submission of the applicable Google form before the stated deadline will be considered.