2026 ICPR Annual Lecture: Navigating Criminal Law in Contemporary India
When: 26 February 2026, 18:00 — 21:00
Venue: Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
Join us for an insightful exploration of criminal justice in contemporary India, featuring leading practitioners and academics at the forefront of reform and advocacy.
Keynote lecture by Anup Surendranath
This lecture examines the contemporary landscape of criminal law and criminal justice in India in a period marked by heightened executive assertiveness and the reconfiguration of State power. In addition to assessing broader trajectories of criminal law in India, the lecture will also explore how criminal law has become a central instrument for the regulation of political dissent and the marginalisation of minorities through seemingly lawful means. Drawing on recent legislative developments, policing practices, and patterns of prosecution, the lecture analyses how legality itself is mobilised to normalise exceptional forms of control. Attention is paid to the role of courts in this terrain, as sites of constitutional restraint, institutional accommodation, or quiet legitimation, raising broader questions about the future of rights, accountability, and the rule of law in India.
Roundtable Discussion: Running a criminal justice initiative in India—Practice, Politics and Impact
Following the keynote lecture, the leadership team from The Square Circle Clinic will discuss the realities of establishing and sustaining a criminal justice initiative in India. This roundtable will explore the initiative’s origins and development since its transition from Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi to NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in April 2025.
The discussion will explore various operational considerations such as the politics of fundraising, navigating the complexities of criminal justice research, and fostering and sustaining university partnerships and institutional support. Participants will share insights on the initiative’s achievements and ongoing challenges in achieving impact, examine how individual casework informs broader policy reform, and discuss approaches for translating legal advocacy into legislative change.
About The Square Circle Clinic
The Square Circle Clinic at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad is a criminal justice initiative committed to the constitutional ideal of equal access to justice. Building on our foundational work in pro bono criminal defence, forensics, death penalty litigation, mental health, and punishment, the Clinic recently expanded its scope to include wrongful convictions, the criminalisation of poverty, and the role of science and technology in the criminal justice system.
The Clinic’s pro bono representation of death row prisoners has led to 33 acquittals and 53 commutations. Notable contributions also include involvement in landmark Supreme Court cases that have shaped criminal law jurisprudence such as Manoj and ors. V. State of Madhya Pradesh (May 2022), In re: human conditions in 1382 prisons (December 2018), Accused X v. State of Maharashtra (April 2019), and Rahul and ors. v. State of NCT of Delhi (November 2022). Through the Fair Trial Programme in collaboration with the Maharashtra government, we have secured the release of over 1,625 undertrials from Pune and Nagpur Central Prisons since 2019.
Over the past decade, we have produced pioneering research, most notably the Death Penalty India Report (2016), which provided insights into the socio-economic backgrounds of death row prisoners. Our annual statistics on the death penalty remain the most comprehensive in India. Our other major publications include Deathworthy (2021), a study on the mental health of death row prisoners; the Forensic Science India Report (2023); and Magistrates and Constitutional Protection (2024), reflecting a commitment to interdisciplinary approaches.
Our work has been widely recognised and cited by the Supreme Court of India, Law Commission, UN bodies, and global psychiatric and legal institutions. Accolades include commendations from the World Psychiatric Association and the New York Legal Aid Society, as well as the “Award for Research” at the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Berlin (2022).
The Square Circle Clinic has offices in Delhi, Hyderabad, Nagpur, and Pune.
Contact name: events@bbk.ac.uk
Speakers
Anup is the Executive Director of Project 39A. He is a Professor of Law and SK Malik Chair Professor on Access to Justice at the National Law University, Delhi where he teaches courses on constitutional law, legal methods, jurisprudence and comparative rights adjudication. He was invited by the Supreme Court of India to serve as the Deputy Registrar (Research) and was on deputation to the court between May 2014 to August 2015. Anup is also a member of the Advisory Council at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford. Anup completed his legal education from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad (2001-06) and the University of Oxford (2007-12).
Maitreyi heads Project 39A’s work on mental health and criminal justice along with leading the death penalty mitigation team. She graduated in Law from the Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 2010. She holds a Masters in Law from the New York University. She was an International Law and Human Rights Fellow as part of which she worked with the Association for Civil Rights in Tel Aviv, Israel. Before joining Project 39A in 2014, Maitreyi worked with Mr. Anand Grover, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India and assisted him in his work as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.
Neetika heads Project 39A’s work on sentencing. She graduated in Law from Christ College, Bangalore in 2012. Neetika also has a Master of Arts degree in Women's Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School. Before joining Project 39A in 2016, Neetika worked as a women's rights lawyer with a feminist legal advocacy and resource group, Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI) based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Professor Mai Sato is Director of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR) in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London (as of February 2025).