Research

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

“Local Actions to Global Conversations: India’s Climate Justice Movement and the Expansion of Human Rights Framework.” 2025. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work 10 (2): 305-317. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-025-00373-z

In this article, I show that India’s various grassroots climate justice movements/campaigns, beginning in the 1730s, have been instrumental in shaping both domestic and global understandings of the “rights of nature.” I discuss how the Indian climate justice movement’s adoption of a human rights language beginning in the 2010s, coupled with the government’s adoption of climate change as a core policy issue soon after, led to the recognition of the right to be free from climate change as a constitutionally protected fundamental right by the Indian Supreme Court (2024).

Public-facing Legal Writings

“Who Let the Dogs Out? The Supreme Court, Community Dogs, and the Rise of Biosecurity Constitutionalism.” December 11, 2025. The International Association of Constitutional Law | L’Association Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel (IACL-AIDC).

On November 7, 2025, the Indian Supreme Court passed a controversial suo motu verdict ordering the forced removal of community dogs from public spaces. This has given rise to one of the most significant animal rights-related social movements in recent Indian history. In this piece, I explain this judgment (and the subsequent societal backlash it is facing) from the perspective of biological reductionism of issues that are inherently social, political, and cultural in nature – what I have termed a sort of “biosecurity constitutionalism.”

“The Rights to (Queer) Family in Indian Constitutional Law.” September 1, 2025. Oxford Human Rights Hub (OxHRH). The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.

Courts in India welcomed Pride Month this year with two landmark judgments relating to the rights of individuals in queer (non-heteronormative) relationships: the Kerala High Court’s Zahhad and Others v. State of Kerala and Another and the Madras High Court’s MA v. Superintendent of Police, Vellore and Others. I discuss these two cases in this piece while positioning them in the broader context of Indian family law and LGBTQ+ jurisprudence.

“On Constitutional Morality and the Ethics of Political Silence.” June 10, 2025.The International Association of Constitutional Law | L’Association Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel (IACL-AIDC).

In this blog, I try to understand the recent constitutional crisis in India (summer 2025) over gubernatorial inaction and the scope of judicial powers through the lens of the “constitutional morality” doctrine. I argue that a deeper engagement with the doctrine is necessary in the Supreme Court’s response to President Murmu’s fourteen questions. Such an engagement will serve a dual purpose: first, it will further crystallize the role of constitutional morality in cases related to high constitutional authorities (like in Puttaswamy II), and second, it will clarify the Court’s Tamil Nadu (2025) ruling with respect to ethical boundaries that politicians and public officials must abide by in a constitutional democracy.

Conference Materials

“Between Love and Law: Human Rights and Decolonial Advocacy in India’s LGBTQ+ Struggle.” August 8, 2025. Abstract Book of the 6th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality (ICGSS). ISBN: 978-609-485-688-4

I presented my ongoing research that explains how the Indian LGBTQ+ rights activism and advocacy rely on both human rights and decolonization-based arguments to advance sociopolitically contentious rights claims, both at the societal and legal levels. This is both puzzling and interesting considering the scholarly work that has put human rights and decolonization at stark odds, calling the former a form of neocolonialism. (please feel free to reach out for the full draft of the working paper)