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Justice Ruma Pal

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Abhishek Verma

Director

Adeeba Rahman

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Arnab Roy

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Dharini Mathur

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Kirtikar Srivastava

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Madhurima Mukherjee

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Mingma L Sherpa

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Sabah Mistry

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Shinto Mathew Abraham

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Shivakumara Palani Swami

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Sushovan Bhattacharjee

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Suvarna Dubey
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Tushant Sharma

Director

Swati Agrawal

Director

Yuvaraj M

Senior Executive, Accounts

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Justice Ruma Pal is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.

She did her LL.B. from Nagpur University and went on to read for her Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree at the University of Oxford.  She commenced practice in 1968 before the Calcutta High Court in civil, revenue, labour and constitutional law matters. On August 6, 1990, she was appointed Judge at the Calcutta High Court, and on January 28, 2000, she was elevated to the Supreme Court of India. She retired on June 3, 2006. 

In her long and distinguished career, Justice Pal has delivered many critical judgements in landmark cases. She co-revised M. P. Jain’s Indian Constitutional Law (6th Edition) and has been published in several national and international journals. She served as the Chancellor of Sikkim University from 2012 to 2017. She is also a member of the International Forum of Women Judges.

Read more about her on her Wikipedia page here.

Mahendra Pal Singh, or M.P. Singh as he is more popularly known, is one of the most renowned Constitutional Law scholars of India. He is currently the Chancellor of Central University of Haryana, and the Chair Professor at the Centre for Comparative Law, National Law University, Delhi. 

Dr. Singh started his career as a lecturer at the University of Meerut and has since then been associated as a lecturer/fellow/visiting professor with several institutes of national and international repute, including the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the University of Heidelberg, the University of Hong Kong, and National University of Singapore. He has also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. 

He is, perhaps, best known for his scholarly works in the field of Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, and some of his well-known publications include V.N. Shukla’s Constitution of India (revised by Dr. Singh), Comparative Constitutional Law, and German Administrative Law in Common Law Perspective.

Read more about him on his Wikipedia page here.

Shishira is one of the first Trustees of IDIA. He is also a Director at Spire Capital and SAB Media Publications. Previously, Shishira co-founded Chicago based Clutch Group, a legal outsourcing company. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of Kalpavriksh Fund.

He previously worked as Special-Officer to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Shishira graduated in Law (B.A. LL.B (Hons.)) from the National Law School of India University, and as a Thomas Buergenthal Scholar from George Washington University, where he completed his Masters in Law (LL.M).

Prof. (Dr.) Shamnad Basheer founded IDIA in 2010 when he was teaching at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and did his post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He was a renowned academician, known especially for his contributions to the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). He was the founder of the leading IPR blog in India, SpicyIP. He was awarded the Infosys Prize 2014 in Humanities.
His demise in 2019 left us all shocked and bereaved. Heartfelt condolences and obituaries poured in from his friends, family, and many legal luminaries in India and abroad. Here are links to a few of them:

He will always be remembered fondly, and we will keep his legacy alive!

Abhishek is a Director at IDIA. He completed his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2018. At IDIA he oversees the operations of various State Chapters and co-heads the national scholar development vertical – CHAMPS.

Adeeba is a Director at IDIA. She completed her B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi in 2014. Prior to joining IDIA, Adeeba had a brief litigation stint with a law firm in Bangalore and then went on to work as a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Compliance Department at Thomson Reuters for a period of 3 years. She is passionate about mentoring and interacting with students and scholars and about human rights law. At IDIA, she manages Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai and Delhi Chapters.

Arnab is a Director at IDIA. He completed his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS). Previously, he worked as a research associate of the IPR Chair at WBNUJS.

During his LL.B., Arnab worked to ensure minimum wages for all contract labourers of WBNUJS.

At IDIA, Arnab is the director-in-charge of the West Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa chapters.

Dharini has spent the last two decades working in-house and in private practice in India and the United States, advising on transactions and strategy.

Dharini has a LL.M from Harvard Law School, a B.C.L. from Oxford University where she was a Commonwealth Scholar and a BA LLB (Hons.) degree from the National Law School, Bangalore. Dharini is currently India Co-Chair of the Harvard Law School Women’s Alliance Network.

At IDIA, Dharini works on mentorship, scholar development, partnerships and fund-raising initiatives.

Kirtikar is a Director at IDIA. He completed his B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2018. He joined the Delhi office of AZB & Partners as an Associate after graduating and worked there for over two years.

At IDIA, Kirtikar heads the national scholar development vertical – CHAMPS. He has also conducted the annual IDIA Diversity Survey in the leading National Law Universities and co-authored the survey reports. He also oversees the operations of the Hyderabad, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Pune and Tamil Nadu Chapters.

Madhurima Mukherjee is the Chief Mentor at IDIA. She has almost 25 years of experience in the legal profession. She graduated from the National Law School of India University in 1997. She has been a Partner with AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra Law Offices and Amarchand Mangaldas (erstwhile).

Madhurima is known for her strategic advice, resolving complex legal issues and has counseled a number of prestigious clients. She has been featured in the ‘Top 100 Indian Lawyers’ list by IBLJ (2018 – 2020). She has been ranked for Capital Markets by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2009, 2013, 2016 – 2020) and Chambers Global (2016 – 2019). She has won many other accolades and has many other achievements.

At IDIA, Madhurima uses her knowledge and experience to help our trustees and team to structure IDIA’s projects and vision. Madhurima undertakes this role alongside her independent legal practice and other philanthropic initiatives.

Mingma is a Consultant for IDIA. She has completed her B.A. LL.B. from the Sikkim Government Law College, Gangtok, Sikkim and L.LM. (Intellectual Property Rights) from NALSAR, Hyderabad.

She has worked on environmental issues, women and child rights, and indigenous community rights. She enjoys art and culture.

At IDIA, she handles the operations of the Sikkim, Assam, and Tripura Chapters.

Sabah has over 20 years of work experience in the Banking, Early Child Care, Learning and Real Estate Sectors. Over the last few years she has worked with a Diversity and Inclusion company called Working With Pride whose aim is to make corporate India inclusion friendly.

She is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Sabah currently handles all India operations at IDIA.

Shinto is a Director at IDIA. He was an IDIA Scholar and graduated in B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi in 2018.

At IDIA, he prepares G.K. updates for the IDIA trainees and co-handles the Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chapters

Shiva is the Accounts Manager at IDIA. He has a B.Com. degree.

 
 

Sushovan is a Director at IDIA. He completed his B.Com from the Calcutta University.

At IDIA, Sushovan is assisting the director-in-charge of the West Bengal, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa chapters.

Suvarna is a Director at IDIA. She completed her B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Amity Law School, Delhi (GGSIPU) in 2019. After graduating, Suvarna worked under an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of India for a year and subsequently joined Lawctopus as a Learning Manager.

At IDIA, Suvarna oversees the operations of the IDIA Delhi Chapter, manages external scholarships for IDIA Scholars and will co-head the IDIA Training & Materials vertical. She is also a trained Life and Work Coach certified by the University of California, Davis and leads the Mental Health wing for our trainees and scholars.

Tushant is a Director at IDIA. He completed his B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National Law University, Odisha in 2017. He worked as a law researcher at the office of Justice Vibhu Bakhru (Delhi High Court) after his graduation for over two years. In 2022, he completed his LLM in public law from SOAS University of London.

At IDIA, Tushant oversees the operations of four State Chapters – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Nagpur. He also manages the work for IDIA annual survey of scholars and will be in charge of Project Lawgic. Project Lawgic is an initiative to provide access to legal knowledge to school kids from marginalised communities with the help of reading materials and online classes. Tushant’s interest lies in the intersection of tribal rights and environmental justice, and the protection of the autonomy granted to Gram Sabhas under the forest rights regime.

Swati is a Director at IDIA. She completed her B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from National Law School of India University, Bangalore, before going on to do her LL.M. at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. She has worked as a banking and finance lawyer with ICICI Bank Limited and Talwar Thakore and Associates in Mumbai.

At IDIA, Swati is the director-in-charge of IReach – the Social Media. Communications and Outreach vertical of IDIA. She also handles/oversees the operations of the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh Chapters.

Yuvaraj is a Senior Executive in the Accounts Team at IDIA. He has an M.Com degree from Karnataka State Open University.