CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

The Centre for Constitutional Law, Policy and Governance focuses on foregrounding rights, rightslessness, and other vulnerabilities in understanding, critiquing, and reforming laws, legal institutions, and modes of governance, so that they reflect the constitutional ideals of justice. The Centre has the following objectives:

1. To engage with constitutional theory and its practical application in framing law and policy in order to realize the constitutional vision of a rights-based just legal order.
2. To undertake empirical and other studies on the working of the legal system and its interactions with social norms and structures, in order to engage in justice oriented law, policy and governance reform.
3. To focus heavily, though not exclusively, on courts as institutions that are mandated to realize the constitutional vision of justice.
4. To engage in action-oriented research for rights-based law and governance reform including through interventions in various fora such as governmental and judicial institutions.
5. To create and disseminate knowledge about constitutional law, policy and governance through publications, class-room teaching and other allied activities, including focusing on clinical legal education on issues of access to justice.
6. To approach all questions from a comparative perspective in order to place Indian constitutional praxis in context and understand and evaluate options and alternatives for policy and law reform.

Dr. Aparna Chandra
Director

Ms. Malavika Parthasarthy
Research Fellow

Malavika holds a BA. LL.B (Hons.) from National Law University Delhi. She is passionate about legal anthropology, constitutional law, human rights law, feminist jurisprudence and animal rights. At NLUD, she was involved in various research projects such as the Death Penalty Research Project, the Supreme Court Empirical Analysis Project, the HRLN Project on Prisoners’ Rights, and the CRR Project on Reproductive Rights. While at law school, she co-founded the GenderCircle, a student group that engages with issues of gender and sexuality, conducting sensitization campaigns and hosting a lecture series, and was also involved in the Public Law & Policy Discussion Group.

At the Centre, she is assisting Dr. Aparna Chandra with a book on the Indian Supreme Court, that is being written in collaboration with Prof. William Hubbard, University of Chicago Law School, and Prof. Sital Kalantry, Cornell Law School.

Ms. Mini Saxena
Research Fellow

Mini holds a BA. LL.B (Hons.) from National Law University Delhi. Subsequently, she worked as a trainee and then associate with Linklaters LLP in London. After her move back to India, she spent a year with the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana as Programme Coordinator (Partnerships & Gender), focusing on their Young Women’s Self-Help Groups programme and enhancing the gender aspects across their projects.

At CLPG, Mini primarily works on the Legal Barriers to Abortion project, a joint initiative of CLPG and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York. She is responsible for grassroots research on the legal barriers to abortion, followed by preparing a report on the same.

Mini is interested in gender and the law, sexualities, sexual violence, and critical race theory.

Ms. Shreya Shree
Research Fellow

Shreya holds a B.A. LL.B (Hons.) degree from National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She also holds a LL.M degree from National Law University, Delhi, where she was the recipient of the gold medal for securing the first rank and the Vice Chancellor’s gold medal for overall best female student of her batch. Her LL.M. dissertation involved an empirical study on medical examination of the accused in rape investigation.

Before pursuing her masters degree, Shreya worked as an associate with Khaitan & Co., New Delhi. At CLPG, she is working on the Reproductive Justice in India Project and the Legal Barriers to Abortion Project, joint initiatives of CLPG and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York. She is assisting the Centre Director in editing and reviewing a compendium of reproductive rights case laws in India and is also responsible for the field based research on legal barriers to accessing safe and comprehensive abortion care in India.

She is interested in empirical legal research, medical jurisprudence, criminal law, gender justice, rights of the marginalised and barriers to livelihood.

CLPG-CRR Study on Legal Barriers to Accessing Safe Abortion Services in India

The Centre in collaboration with the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York is undertaking a study on the legal barriers to accessing safe and comprehensive abortion care in India. The aim of the study is understand, document and analyse the restrictions placed by these barriers on those seeking and those providing abortion services, and the harm caused to women. The study will be based on field work in select states, survey of existing literature and analysis of national, international and comparative norms. The findings of the study will be published in a report that will aid in steering the legislative and judicial discourses on abortion law and rights in India.

CLPG-CRR Reproductive Rights in India Project (2017-2018)

The Centre in collaboration with the Centre for Reproductive Rights, New York is conceptualizing, researching for, and producing a manual on reproductive rights in India that will serve as a reference book for judges, legal practitioners and students on reproductive rights case laws, international human rights laws and best practices. The research undertaken for the manual will also be used to teach an elective course on reproductive rights at NLU Delhi.

CLPG-Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee Prisons Project

CLPG is collaborating with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee to work on two projects on undertrial incarceration in Delhi. The projects involve preparing periodic reports on the status of each case, documenting the causes of delay (if any), compliance with guidelines and laws, and availability of bail for the incarcerated person. The Centre will also prepare a policy proposal based on these cases highlighting systemic concerns and blockages in the criminal justice system, and providing suggestions for reforms.

Project on Empirical Analysis Of Supreme Court Decisions

This research project, funded by the University of Chicago, is a collaboration between Dr. Aparna Chandra, Research Director of the Centre, Prof. Sital Kalantry (Cornell Law School) and Prof. William Hubbard (University of Chicago Law School). The project involves an empirical analysis of the functioning of the Indian Supreme Court by examining all reported decisions of the Court in the period 2010-2015. The results of the exercise will be published in a series of articles and a book.

Fair Trial Manual

The Centre is collaborating with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative to revise and update the 2010 edition of CHRI’s "Fair Trial Manual: A Handbook for Judges and Magistrates".

Report on issues of bail for women prisoners

The Delhi High Court, in Court on Its Own Motion v. State [Writ Petition (Crl.) 1352/2015) asked Prof (Dr.) Mrinal Satish and Dr. Aparna Chandra to submit a report on the issues of bail for women prisoners lodged in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. Reports were submitted in July 2017 and again in December 2017. The Court has issued orders on the basis of the submissions made by the CLPG team. The matter is currently ongoing, and further reports and submissions are being made.

Legal Awareness and Counselling Sessions at Jail No. 6, Tihar Prisons.

The Centre for Constitutional Law, Policy and Governance was requested by the Superintendent of the Women’s Prison, Tihar Jail, New Delhi to address issues faced by prisoners on access to legal aid/legal information. Thereafter, the Centre has been conducting weekly legal counselling sessions for women prisoners.

The Centre collaborated with Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) to revise and update HRLN’s Prisoners’ Rights Manual. These manuals provide ready reference material for lawyers and civil society organizations working on the issue of prisoners’ rights.

Project on Process Re-engineering in the Criminal Justice System:

Submission and Consultancy for the Law Commission’s 268th Report on Amendments to Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 – Provisions Relating to Bail (2017)

The Centre submitted a detailed report to the Law Commission of India for its report on Bail Law Reform, and provided consultancy to the Law Commission on this issue. Many of the Centre’s suggestions were accepted by the Law Commission and found place in the final report.