The Kerala High Court’s Sex Work Ruling: A Human Rights Crisis in the Making
When courts rule on the lives of vulnerable communities without grounding their decisions in lived realities, the result is often not protection but harm. In July 2025, the Kerala High...
Saving Time, Saving Lives: The Golden Hour as a Constitutional Guarantee in India
In trauma medicine, the “golden hour” is the first sixty minutes after a serious injury—the period when rapid intervention can make the difference between life and death. Countries have built...
Maharashtra’s Special Public Security Bill: Vague Law, Clear Danger
The Maharashtra State Assembly in India recently passed the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill (MSPS) with the stated objective of combating left-wing extremism, including what it terms the urban “frontal...
Constitutional Liberty under UAPA: Pre-Trial Punishment and the Criminalisation of Dissent in India
India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (“UAPA”) was originally enacted to regulate “unlawful associations”. Later amendments included a definition of “terrorist act” (2004), created the restrictive bail bar in Section...
Presumed Misuse, Denied Rights: Invisible Disabilities and the Structural Effects of Suspicion under Indian Law
Public controversies in India reignited longstanding anxieties around the integrity of affirmative action frameworks. The case of a probationary civil servant misrepresenting herself as disabled to avail disability quota, has...
Need for a Benignant View for Women’s Protection vis-a-vis Sexual Harassment in Advocacy
Recently, UNS Women Advocates’ Association filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the Bar Council of India as well as Bar Council...
Queering Marriage Law in India (Part 6 of 6)
Marriage in India is a fraught issue, arranged between families and plagued by questions of caste, class and religion. Religious personal laws govern marriage, a remnant of British colonial rule,...
The Curious Case of Bhagwati Pathwar: What has love got to do with it? (Part 5 of 6)
In the Indian context, eloping and marrying outside of one’s faith or caste is a common occurrence but made socially and legally difficult, and as a result couples often approach...
From Safe Spaces to Centres of Social Control: Regulating Love through the One Stop Centre in Bhopal, India (Part 4 of 6)
Women’s bodies and their choices have been a political subject and, in several matters, politically controlled by society. Retractions from the norms are met with resistance that could be criminalised...
And the Law Comes Knocking: Section 69 and the Impact on Live-in Relationships in India (Part 3 of 6)
Section 69 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, drags legality into the wayward path of promises and their betrayal. The law formalises the judicial treatment of sexual consent said to...
The Intimate State: India’s Legal Turn Against Interfaith Relationships (Part 2 of 6)
In January 2025, the Indian state of Uttarakhand became the first to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) post-independence, ostensibly to promote gender justice, legal uniformity, and administrative efficiency. According...
Policing Love: Law, Institutions and the Limits of Autonomy (Part 1 of 6)
In June 2025, we convened a workshop at SOAS, funded by SOAS Law School, and titled Policing Intimacies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Regulation of Love, Marriage, and Inter-community Relationships. Our...
