The NLS Forum curates pioneering research and current developments in the fields of law, public policy, social sciences and humanities.
Our work bridges academic scholarship, legal practice and
civil society discourse.
We present the University blog and five student journal blogs, where leading scholarship from around the world is edited by our faculty, researchers and students. To submit your work, please refer to the submission guidelines provided for each blog.
NLSIR On Line #7: A Conversation with Dr. Nivedita Menon on Higher Educational Institutions and Student Politics and the Law
February 9, 2026
NLSIR's Harshvardhan Ray, Shreya Rajesh, Vedant Gupta and Yashaswini Singh Chauhan in conversation with Dr. Nivedita Menon on autonomy in higher educational institutions, student politics and the law, redefining carceral processes and the rise of the "manosphere". The interviewers would like to thank Gurnoor Singh and Aditya Nath for their assistance in drafting the questions for the interview. Note: The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Gimmicking the Gillick Test: Evaluating the Age of Consent under India’s DPDPA, 2023
February 8, 2026
This article critiques India’s rigid, age-based consent regime under the DPDPA, 2023, arguing that it overprotects children at the cost of their autonomy. Drawing on the Gillick competence test and Singapore’s hybrid model, it proposes a capacity-based framework that recognises minors as active participants in their digital privacy decisions.
Bouncing the Boundaries: Should Section 138 NI Act Complainants be Treated as “Victims” under Section 372 CrPC? – Part 2
February 16, 2026
Part II builds on the groundwork established in Part I, by assessing the effects of extending the proviso to Section 372 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to complainants under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. It first illustrates how the Supreme Court’s decision in M/s Celestium Financial v. A. Gnanasekaran & Ors introduces ambiguity and inconsistency into the Code of Criminal Procedure by creating two parallel and overlapping appellate routes, one requiring special leave under Section 378(4) and the other permitting a direct appeal under Section 372. Thereafter, the authors contend, using P. Mohanraj v. Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt Ltd that Section 138 is essentially a civil proceeding with criminal antecedents. Based on this, Part II contends that characterizing Section 138 complainants as “victims” under Section 372 proviso runs the risk of frivolous complaints.
A (Un)Precedented Shift? Legitimacy and the Rise of Standing Mechanisms in Investor-State Dispute Settlement
February 10, 2026
Investor–State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) faces a persistent legitimacy crisis driven by inconsistent arbitral interpretations of similar treaty provisions. While tribunals lack a formal doctrine of precedent, they rely on jurisprudence constante, engaging prior awards as persuasive authority to balance consistency with treaty-specific flexibility. Recent reform proposals advocating standing adjudicatory mechanisms, such as the EU–Chile Model, the CETA Tribunal, and the proposed Multilateral Investment Court, seek to address inconsistency through institutionalisation. This blog piece examines whether such mechanisms strengthen jurisprudence constante or risk hardening it into binding precedent. It argues that legitimacy depends on designing standing mechanisms that institutionalise reasoned engagement with prior decisions without undermining flexibility or state autonomy.