Led by Prof (Dr.) Sairam Bhat, this project aims to raise awareness about the various ways in which Gender Based Violence may manifest, and also to train and build the capacity of elected Women Panchayat Raj Representatives to deal firsthand with the victims of this Gender-Based Violence.

Background

Although India has comprehensive frameworks protecting the rights of women across all sectors of society, EWRs in remote areas may sometimes be unaware of their rights. They often lack structured training, accessible legal resources, and coordinated support mechanisms to effectively respond to cases of gender-based violence and facilitate access to justice. Funded by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, this project seeks to bridge these gaps by preparing training modules, conducting master trainer programmes across the country over 2 years, and establishing a legal aid clinic to provide ongoing legal and policy support. The main research area of the project focuses on the implementation of various pieces of legislation, such as the Domestic Violence Act, the Dowry Harassment Act, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, and the Victim Compensation Scheme, along with a deeper understanding of Gender-Based Violence from a sociological perspective.

Project Description

The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and partner institutions like SIRDs, Yashada and Piramal. It also plans to conduct pilot workshops in collaboration with local law universities to test and refine the training module before wider rollout. To further the reach of the project, a legal aid competition titled “4th Edition Prof. V.S. Mallar Memorial Legal Aid Competition” was conducted in collaboration with J.S.S. Law College, Mysore, in which more than 50 colleges participated, and helped bring legal aid to rural areas in various parts of the country.

Expected outcomes include empowerment of EWRs, enhanced legal support to rural women, and stronger support mechanisms for the safety and security of women.

Objectives:

• To create training modules on laws relating to the safety and security of women and girls.
• To build the capacity of Elected Women Representatives through Master Trainer Programmes
• To create multilingual and digital learning resources
• To provide continued legal and policy support to strengthen the first response to gender based violence at the grassroots.

Key activities

The project includes development of legal training modules, translation into regional languages, pilot workshops with local universities, Master Trainer programmes, creation of digital learning resources, establishment of a First Responder Legal Aid Clinic, and research, monitoring, and policy recommendations for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR).

Duration

This is a two-year project that started in October 2025 and is expected to end by September 2027.

Team

Principal Investigator – Prof. (Dr.) Sairam Bhat ()
Consultant – Adv. Gayathri Gireesh ()
Consultant – Adv. Prateek Kamath ()
Consultant – Adv. Rohith R Kamath ()
Project Intern – Tanvi Kadakol
Project Intern – Merugu Abhigna
Project Intern – C. Malleshwari
Project Intern – Arvind S

 

Prof Sanjay Jain has secured a Major ICSSR Grant for a research project titled “Dynamics of Formal and Informal Constitutionalism: Towards Forensic Mapping of Formation, Functioning, and Adjudication of Constitutional Conventions in India”. The central argument of the proposed research is that prolixity of the Constitution of India does not in any way negate institutionalisation of informal constitutionalism through conventions and allied constitutional informalities. This is a two-year project that started in March 2026.

Scope and Objectives

The scope of this project involves engagement with Constitutional conventions in the context of Indian Constitutional law transcending Common Law tradition. Drawing inputs from non-Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions, the project inter alia seeks to inquire into the intersection of constitutional convention and constitutional conscience; and the role of transnational constitutionalism in the evolution of new constitutional conventions.

Its objectives include:

• To critically inquire into the formation, functioning and adjudication of constitutional conventions in India.
• To conduct empirical mapping of constitutional provisions to develop a matrix for generating constitutional conventions.
• To critique overemphasis on common-law orientation of constitutional conventions and investigate whether the same has a positive or negative impact on the entrenchment of the institution of constitutional conventions under the Indian Constitution.
• To catalogue various pathways for analysing the intersection and encounters between written and unwritten constitutional rules.
• To explore the viability of codified unwritten constitutional conventions into written constitutional rules.
• To explore i) an alternative to the Jennings test; ii) post-colonial rationales and justifications to lend legitimacy to constitutional conventions; and iii) Should legislature in India consider a proposal to attach a catalogue of constitutional conventions as a Schedule to the text of the Indian Constitution.
• To compare and contrast the position of Canadian and Indian Supreme Courts on the issue of enforcement of constitutional conventions.

Three-fold framework of the project-

Three-fold framework of the project: a) contesting overwhelming focus on English-law orientation of constitutional conventions; b) moving away from the narrow compass of determination and recognition of conventions based on Jennings test and to draw attention to evolution of new conventions in post-colonial constitutional settings and; c) To move beyond the narrow rubric of responsible government, constitutional conventions in India must be understood as operating across multiple registers: as vehicles of informal amendment, devices for addressing constitutional silences, and mediating norms structuring the judiciary–executive interface. They also animate the rise of fourth-branch institutions, recalibrate the separation of powers, nurture constitutional culture, and act as soft constraints against democratic backsliding and institutional capture.

For more information, please contact Prof Sanjay Jain at

Women’s Inclusion and Leadership in Law (WILL) initiative focuses on making the Indian legal profession more gender-equitable by enabling early-career women litigators – especially those from marginalised communities—to enter, sustain, and rise to leadership within litigation practice.

WILL is the first project under the Centre for the Study of the Legal Profession at the National Law School of India University. The WILL initiative commences its research activities from the academic year 2026-27 as a five-year initiative. 

For any queries, contact will@nls.ac.in.

Background

Women formally entered the profession in the country through the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act, 1923. Up until then, women could not practice law. The change in law was prompted by the experience of Regina Guha. After completing her law degree from Calcutta University, Regina Guha applied to be admitted to practice in the Alipore district court. However, her application was rejected on the ground that women were not “persons” who could be licensed to practice under the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879.  Though the Act did not expressly exclude women from practicing law, the Calcutta High Court held that the Act did not intend “such a radical change in the constitution of the profession … as would be caused by the admission of women.”  This was in 1916. It would take until 1923 for the legislature to pass the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act, allowing women to practice law in India. By then Regina Guha had passed away and never got to practice law only because she was a woman.

A century later, the profession still lacks adequate representation of women at all levels. While Indian women enrol for law and represent about 32% of total law graduates, they comprise only 15% of the total 1.8 million lawyers admitted to practice in the country. More worryingly, women’s representation falls even further in leadership and decision-making positions within the profession. Merely 3.4% of designated Senior Advocates in India are women. Only 9 out of 441 (2.04 %) elected posts across the state bar councils are held by women. Most stark is that the Bar Council of India does not have a single woman.

These numbers point to a sharp decline in representation from the point of entry into the profession to positions of leadership. The data highlights a central paradox: though trained in the law and presumed capable of defending rights, women remain subject to entrenched gendered norms that undermine their presence, participation, and progression in the profession. The attrition of women is not incidental—it is shaped by systemic, institutional, and cultural barriers that converge most severely during the early years of litigation practice.

Objective

Through evidence-based research, the WILL project seeks to highlight structural barriers hindering women’s participation and growth at different levels. Drawing from the research, the project will design and implement suitable collectivising and empowerment initiatives and engage with stakeholders to foreground systemic and policy reform. 

These elements, we believe, will generate conditions for change-making efforts by women lawyers and galvanize a radical change in legal practice, interpretation, and justice delivery, especially for marginal communities.

Team

The WILL Team comprises:

Dr Ashrita Prasad Kotha – Faculty Lead & Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legal Profession

Atishya Kumar – Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of the Legal Profession

Mahima Ray – Research Associate – WILL Initiative

Hassini R – Research Associate – WILL Initiative

Features

NLSIU launches centre to study India’s legal profession, starting with women’s declining representation, ThePrint

Bar exam to bench, how are Indian women lawyers doing?, ThePrint

NLSIU Faculty Dr. Vijayamba R is a co-investigator in a project titled “Bus, benefits and beyond: A comprehensive study of transport equity through Karnataka’s Shakti Scheme.” The project is the recipient of Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka’s annual research program (ASPIRE-02/2025), that aims at conducting studies for identified priority research areas in the field of urban mobility. The collaborators for the project are Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), National Law School of India University (NLSIU), and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).

Project Description

The Shakti scheme of the Karnataka government is a new addition to a long list of cities implementing fare-free public transport (FFPT). The philosophy of distributive justice serves as the underlying philosophy, which refers to providing fair access to civic resources, including public transport. Despite the popularity, the impacts of the scheme – benefits, biases and barriers – are often unaccounted for, invisible, and disconnected.

This project will evaluate the Shakti scheme both from a demand (user) perspective and a supply (transport personnel) perspective. In the first phase of studying user perspective, apart from the obvious affordability component of the Shakti scheme, this project will employ the 4As framework (accessibility, availability, acceptability and affordability) to understand their experiences comprehensively. In the second phase, the study will focus on the supply (transport personnel) perspective through focus group discussions at bus depots and related offices. Through these two phases, the study will capture the scheme’s invisible, unaccounted and disparate impact on bus users and society at large.

This research project has chosen four field sites to capture the diversity in user experience, geography and service provision. The four field sites are Mysuru (Tier II), Hubli (Tier II), Kalaburagi (Tier II) and Karwar (Tier III). The study categorises bus users into three intersectional categories, based on age and purpose of travel. 1) younger adults (18 to 25 years) accessing higher education; 2) middle-aged adults (18 to 60 years) in the workforce 3) Older adults (60& above) accessing healthcare. This project aims to employ a state-of-the-art combination of quantitative, qualitative, and geo-spatial methods. The quantitative methods include structured, in-person, researcher-administered surveys for the three cohorts. Qualitative methods using in-depth interviews for a purposive sample will be administered to understand the experiences of access and barriers in detail and their perceptions about the scheme. Focus group discussion will be conducted to understand the range of perceptions, opinions and experiences of transport personnel. The outputs of the project include capacity building, workshops for research personnel, analysis, popular media pieces and reports.

Duration

The project started in September 2025 and is for a period of one year.

Team

The project team constitutes expertise spanning urban sociology, gender studies, transport geography, and public health.

Principal Investigator:

Dr. Prajwal Nagesh (from MIDS), an expert in urban sociology and transport geography with over six years of experience in researching urban mobility through accessing public transportation in South Asia, will lead the project.

Co-Investigators:

• Dr. Vijayamba R (from NLSIU), a development economist, will assess the economic ripple effects of the Shakti Scheme, including its influence on the labour market participation. Her expertise on gender, labour and large-scale data will contribute to the quantitative method of the study.
• Dr. Selim Jahangir (from MAHE), a human geography expert in gender and urban studies, will lead the qualitative research component.
• Dr. Divya Sussana Patil (from MAHE), a public health expert in ageing, healthcare access, and evidence synthesis, will lead the impact of the Shakti scheme on healthcare access components.

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, is partnering with the International Bar Association (IBA) to undertake a research project examining the representation of women in the legal profession with a focus on and evaluating the effectiveness of gender-focussed workplace initiatives in Indian law firms.

Project Overview

Across the globe, and notably in India, the legal profession continues to face challenges related to gender parity, the retention of women lawyers, and the implementation of meaningful gender-sensitive workplace policies. This research project aims to generate empirical data and analytical insights that highlight these issues within the context of Indian law firms.

The ultimate objective is to develop a comprehensive report that summarises and analyses survey findings, providing a clear understanding of the representation of women in Indian law firms. This project is being supported through funding from the IBA.

Key Components

NLSIU’s primary responsibility in this project is to provide research inputs on the status and representation of women in India’s legal profession. The research will encompass the following tasks:

• Identifying and confirming a list of law firms to be approached for survey participation, in consultation with the IBA.
• Reviewing the IBA’s existing survey questions and recommending country-specific adjustments to ensure relevance and clarity.
• Distributing the survey to the selected law firms, conducting necessary follow-ups, and facilitating communication on behalf of the IBA.
• Undertaking original research on gender equality and women’s experiences in Indian law firms, to inform and enrich the final report.
• Compiling survey findings and research insights into a final report for submission to the IBA.

Duration

The duration of the project will be 9 months starting November 2025.

Team

The following faculty members will be involved in the research and preparation of the report:

• Harsha N, Assistant Professor, NLSIU and Faculty-in-Charge, IBA-CLE Professorial Chair on Continuing Legal Education
• Keertana Venkatesh, Assistant Professor, NLSIU
• Isha Ahlawat, Assistant Professor, NLSIU

In April 2022, NLSIU announced a research project on issues in pre-trial processes in India. The project, supported by Thakur Foundation, is being led by Dr. Mrinal Satish, Professor of Law, NLSIU.

The project focuses on two broad themes – excessive pre-trial detention, and the scope and implementation of search and seizure provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C) and special criminal statutes. In the context of excessive pre-trial detention, the project will study the extent of unnecessary arrests, and bail related issues. When dealing with search and seizure, it will focus on the impact that quasi-criminal statutes have had on the criminal justice process, and also the emerging issue of search of digital devices. The two-year project will culminate into a comprehensive research report, which will then be converted into a series of academic publications.

About the Project

In examining the question of excessive pre-trial detention, the project will focus on studying and documenting issues such as the nature of offences for which arrests are made, compliance with the Arnesh Kumar guidelines, bail conditions, the use and impact of plea bargaining, among others. On search and seizure, the project will focus on studying, and documenting the implementation and effectiveness of safeguards and protocols to be followed in conducting searches and seizures, the application of search-related protocols and safeguards to searches of digital devices, and the impact of the jurisprudence relating to special criminal statutes on the Cr.P.C.

There has been considerable discussion on pre-trial processes, bail law, plea bargaining, and search and seizures over the last couple of decades. The Law Commission of India in its 268th Report made various recommendations relating to bail law, and multiple judgments of the Supreme Court of India have also focused on reducing unnecessary arrests, and reducing excessive pre-trial detention. This project aims to study issues relating to pre-trial processes from a jurisprudential and comparative lens, and also empirically document implementation of laws, thereby contributing to the literature and discussions on criminal procedure.

NLSIU has embarked on a three-year collaboration with the Chair for Comparative and Public Law, Humboldt University, Berlin under the Indo-German Partnership in Higher Education (IGP) programme of the University Grants Commission, in collaboration with DAAD. Founded in 1925, The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) is the German support organisation in the field of international academic cooperation.

Titled ‘Law and Transformation: Opening Conversations between India and Germany,’ the project will touch upon multiple legal themes including constitutional and administrative law, intellectual property rights, economic laws, among others. Under the grant approved by the UGC, the programme establishes a four-year joint research and academic exchange between the two partner institutions, initiating a comparative dialogue on law and transformation in India and Germany.

Faculty Incharge: Dr. Aparna Chandra

Some of the activities under this grant during 2022-23 are as follows:

• Student Exchange (from Humboldt University to NLSIU): NLSIU hosted 7 undergraduate students and 3 PhD scholars from HU in the 2022-23 academic year.
• Student Exchange (from NLSIU to Humboldt University): NLS funded 4 PhD scholars to spend two months each at HU. The scholars are associated with the Chair on Comparative Law headed by Prof. Philipp Dann, and are required to undertake their research, as well as any other academic obligations as directed by the Chair. These scholars were selected after a competitive process, and their projects will all benefit from the time spent researching and writing at Humboldt University.
• Faculty Exchange: NLS funded three faculty exchanges with HU for 2022-23. Each faculty member spends up to two months at HU, working closely with the Chair on Comparative Law headed by Prof. Philipp Dann, undertaking their research, participating in the weekly research colloquia at the Chair, presenting their work at the Chair, holding a workshop/teaching a short course for students at HU, and overall participating in the intellectual life at the Chair. Two faculty members have already participated in the exchange, and another one is scheduled to participate later this year.
• Young Scholars Workshop: NLS hosted a Young Scholars Workshop in March 2023. This workshop brought together Indian and German doctoral scholars to discuss their projects and receive feedback on their papers.

About the Project

Since September 2022, the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) is participating in a three-year long research project titled ‘Pluralist Agreement and Constitutional Transformation’ (PACT). This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and looks at rethinking the making of constitutions in divided societies. 

The project is led by Prof. Rochana Bajpai, SOAS as principal investigator with Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, NLSIU as the co-investigator. Other co-investigators are Dr. Nicholas Cole, University of Oxford, Dr. Udit Bhatia, University of York, and Mr. Vineeth Krishna, the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), Bangalore.

Over the course of the project, NLSIU’s research team will engage in research; writing academic papers and blog posts; participating and organising workshops/ training programmes with various stakeholders from the judiciary, academia and civil society; evaluating impact of the PACT project; and participating in a summative conference and policy dialogue.  

Project Proposal

The PACT project will create an advanced digital platform on the making of the Indian constitution (1950). The Indian Constituent Assembly (1946-49) met against the background of transfer of power from the British, partition, Hindu-Muslim blood-shed, and the largest mass migration in history. It is during these challenges and disagreements along the lines of religion, caste and linguistic differences that the constitution was drafted, a document that continues to shape contemporary politics.

This research will aim to draw lessons regarding the democratic legitimacy of constitutions from the Indian example, while analysing its unfulfilled potential for pluralism and democracy in the present. The research also aims to shed light on the role of collective practices of petition, debate, and protest by citizens and the marginalized in the making of constitutions, and their remaking over time.

Using the methodologies and software developed at Pembroke College by the Quill Project, the project will create an extensive digital record of the proceedings from 1946 to 1949 that led to the formation of the Indian constitution. Alongside these plenary debates of the Indian Constituent Assembly, the project will also include committee discussions, petitions, public responses and the wider debate of the period. This broad collection of sources will allow further study into the context of public opinion against which the Indian constitution was authored. 

Upcoming events

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) will host a conference on August 1st to 3rd 2024 in Bengaluru under the project. The conference will include research presentations by the PACT investigators and invited scholars, a keynote address, and a workshop for law clerks on using the PACT developed platforms for research on the constitution. 

Recent events

1. Constitution and National Unity | Theme I: 75th Year of the Constitution – The Government of Karnataka hosted a two-day international conference titled ‘Constitution and National Unity’ on February 24 and 25, 2024, in Bengaluru, to commemorate 75 years of the Indian Constitution. NLSIU anchored Theme I (The 75th Year of the Indian Constitution) of the conference.
2. Lecture by Dr. Udit Bhatia | Funding Democracy: A Radical Alternative – The National Law School hosted Dr Bhatia on his research visit where he presented his work on the funding of election campaigns on December 19, 2023.
3. Book Discussion | Dr. Mathew John’s ‘India’s Communal Constitution: Law, Religion, and the Making of a People’ – The National Law School hosted PACT’s first in person book discussion on December 21, 2023.
4. Book Discussion | Achyut Chetan’s ‘Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic – Aishwarya Birla, research associate for PACT, acted as a book discussant on November 1, 2023.
5. Workshop 13-14th July 2023 – University of Oxford – Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Vineeth Krishna presented on new quantitative approaches to understanding borrowing in constitutional text and drafting processes in India.
6. 119th APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition, August 31 – September 3, 2023 – Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy presented a draft paper looking at new quantitative approaches to understanding borrowing in constitutional text and drafting processes in India. 

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In March 2022, NLSIU commenced a two-year project on Public Health and the Indian Constitution with the objective of analyzing the contemporary public health themes at the helm intersection of law and health. The project supported by Thakur Foundation aims to evaluate the constitutional framework within which the duties, powers and limitations of the government on public health are debated and scrutinized by the courts.

The project entails a survey of leading cases from the Supreme Court of India and the State High Courts on the constitutionality of public health regulations, programmes and policies in India, and the interaction of public health with fundamental rights, directive principles of state policy and the federal structure of the Constitution of India.

The scope of examination will include public health themes such as access to medicines, availability and affordability of healthcare services, discrimination in access to healthcare facilities, compulsory vaccinations, digitization and privacy concerns, nutrition support, control of harmful substances and prohibition of their advertisements of harmful substances, regulation of drugs and medical devices, regulation of professions, compulsory bonds, impact of emerging technologies, rare diseases and the extent of state responsibility.

The two-year project will culminate into a compendium of edited cases and materials including critical comments on issues of public health and the Indian constitution.

Project Investigator: Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice-Chancellor, NLSIU
Team: Ms. Nanditta Batra, Assistant Professor of Law, NLSIU, and Kiran Suryanarayana, Academic fellow