Pranav Verma
I completed my undergraduate degree in law at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, from where I graduated in 2017 with Gold Medals for Criminal Law; being the Best Orator; and also received the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal for the Best Male Graduate with Proven Leadership Qualities. After graduating from NALSAR, I worked briefly in the disputes practice of S&R Associates, where the lessons learnt in the practice of law were to prove valuable tools for a future career in academia.
The fact that academia was my true calling was a realisation first shaped by my own stint as a Teaching Assistant as a final year student at NALSAR, and then further on as an externally hired TA after graduation. I then went on to pursue my Master of Law at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, where I cultivated my research interests in the intersection of constitutional law and criminal law, and more specifically, in the practice of the death penalty in India. Thereafter, I joined NALSAR as an Assistant Professor in 2021, which in many ways marked a return to my home institution, and I couldn’t have asked for a better start for a career in academia. In my teaching responsibilities, I believe in an active engagement between both, what the law is, and what it ought to be, to nurture the critical analytical abilities in my students, that I credit my own NALSAR education much for.
In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I serve as the Faculty Supervisor of the University’s flagship Lecture Series on Constitutionalism, which aims to bridge the gap between scholarship and practice in the field of constitutionalism, and provide a space for deliberation on cutting-edge issues of constitutional law. My other non-teaching responsibilities also include coordinating the University’s social media outreach programs.
Apart from teaching, I enjoy writing and more so on contemporary themes in public law and criminal justice. Not known as much of a sports person, I do, however, enjoy swimming and occasional jogs to keep up with my fitness travails.
Master of Law, University of Cambridge (2020–2021)
B.A., L.L.B. (Hons.), NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad (2012–2017)
My research interests lie in exploring the intersections between constitutional law and criminal law, and particularly in the field of death sentencing in India.
- Presented a paper titled ‘GMR-Maldives Fiasco: Lessons for South Asia’ at the ‘International Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation in SAARC: Problems and Prospects for Investments’ (organised by NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad).
- Authored the article ‘Critiquing the Corporate Social Responsibility Provisions Under the Companies Act, 2013’, N.L.U. Odisha Student Law Journal, ISSN 2350-062X, Vol. 2, (2014).
- TheWire.in; ‘Brokering Justice in Uttarakhand’ (18 May 2016).
- TheWire.in; ‘Delhi Power Tussle: LG is Flirting Dangerously Close to Contempt of Court’ (21 August 2018)
- Law and Other Things; ‘Of Law and Politics in Delhi: A Recipe for Contempt of Court’’(14 September 2018)
- TheWire.in; ‘The Lathi and India’s Colonial Cure for the Coronavirus’ (2 April 2020, co-authored)
- The Hindu (Op-ed), ‘Reaffirm Cooperative Federalism’ (13 May 2020, co-authored)
- TheWire.in; ‘The State Can’t Ignore Legal Safeguards Meant to Protect Citizens from Itself’(13 July 2020)
- Deccan Chronicle, and The Asian Age (Op-ed), ‘A Controversial Judge with A Tumultuous Legacy’ (7 September 2020, co-authored),
- The Hindu (Op-ed), ‘An Unconstitutional Harvest’ (6 October 2020, co-authored),
- TheWire.in; ‘Supreme Court’s Role Is to Dispense ‘Justice’, Not to Arrive at Negotiated Settlements’ (18 January 2021)
- The Hindu (Op-ed), ‘Master and roster’, 02 March 2021,
- The Inevitable Inconsistency of the Death Penalty in India', Cambridge Law Review (2021) Vol. VI, Issue ii, 27-65
The Death Penalty in India: Law, Practice, And A Search For Consistency; Law of Evidence; Jurisprudence, Criminal Law
Email: [email protected]