LEGAL ORGANISATIONS AND NGOS

The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (‘Vidhi’) is an independent think tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good. It has offices in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. Vidhi engages with the Government of India, State Governments, the Judiciary, and other public institutions to inform policy-making and also to effectively convert policy into law. Vidhi undertakes original legal research, petitions courts on important issues of law and policy, and collaborates with civil society, academic institutions, and other stakeholders to have a positive impact on governance. You can read more about their work here.

Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) is a domestically funded not for profit organisation with a mission to advance digital rights in India. Our work is guided by the principles of progressive constitutionalism to advance the democratizing potential of technology and individual liberty. IFF is committed to defending and expanding fundamental rights as India gets more digitally connected. As part of this mandate, we strategically engage with courts, regulators, and other legal institutions across India with a focus on institutional change. Our model draws the public into processes which otherwise lack glamour and wider engagement. Technology and user rights are mainstream concerns impacting a growing number of Indians and need greater resources and organisational infrastructure. Apart from strategic litigation, we also engage with different government ministries and Members of Parliament. We believe in institutional change and these verticals play an integral role towards furthering our mission. More information about our model is available here, and on our website. 

The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPAP) is a Bhopal based litigation and research intervention team that focuses on building police accountability against the criminalization of Denotified Tribal (DNT) Communities and other persecuted communities. Their recent study “Countermapping Pandemic Policing: Sanctioned Violence in Madhya Pradesh” looked at the disturbing rates of incarceration and  police brutality against marginalized communities during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing Government lockdown. CPAP was one of the winners of the prestigious Agami Prize in 2020. 

The Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi (CCG) was established in 2013 to ensure that Indian legal education establishments engage more meaningfully with information technology law and policy and contribute to improved governance and policy making. CCG is the only academic research centre dedicated to undertaking rigorous academic research in India on information technology law and policy in India and in a short span of time has become a leading institution in Asia. Through its academic and policy research, CCG engages meaningfully with policy making in India by participating in public consultations, contributing to parliamentary committees and other consultation groups, and holding seminars, courses and workshops for capacity building of different stakeholders in the technology law and policy domain.

One Future Collective is a feminist, youth-led social purpose organisation nurturing radical kindness in people, communities and organisations -- with a vision of a world built on social justice, led by communities of care. We do this through our work on gender justice, feminist leadership, and mental health. Learn more about us, here: www.onefuturecollective.org. 

ADF India is an alliance building legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people. ADF India partners with allied lawyers across the country to secure victories for religious freedom. They are shaping an India in which human dignity and fundamental freedoms are robustly protected and culturally embraced by achieving lasting, positive change in the legal system and culture. ADF India has also launched the Vanishing Girls Campaign to counter the practice of sex-selective abortions advocating for the effective implementation of the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostics Technique Act, 1994. 

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation registered as a society in India in 1993. They work for the practical realization of human rights through research, capacity building and engagement. CHRI specializes in the areas of access to justice, with a focus on police and prison reforms, and access to information. CHRI's work increasingly focuses on accountability of systems towards vulnerable groups, including women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Transgender persons, persons with diabilities and Human Rights Defenders, including RTI activists and journalists under attack. They also work to address pressures on the freedom of expression and on media rights. CHRI is a Commonwealth Accredited Organisation and has a Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC.  Their recent publications include Life and Death in the time of RTI – Case Studies from Maharashtra; Police Registration of Sexual Offences: A Guide on Procedures and Holding Police Accountable; and Lost Identity: Transgender Persons in Indian Prisons. For more information, please visit www.humanrightsinitiative.org.  

The Centre for Justice, Law, and Society (CJLS) is a multidisciplinary research centre at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. CJLS is a collaborative endeavor of a group of scholars, activists and students engaging with contemporary issues at the intersection of law, justice, society and marginalization in South Asia. Some of their publications can be found here. 

LexQuest Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit law & policy research and action organization established in 2014 in New Delhi. They conduct extensive legal and policy research and analysis to provide transformative solutions to public interest issues. At the core of their work lies their understanding of law as an expression of driving social change & creating a just & equal society.

They defend the rights of the marginalised and seek to extend and secure the civil liberties of all communities through legal & policy reform. They are dedicated to improving the public policy framework in our country to ensure sustainable development and growth for all citizens.

They strongly believe in the emancipatory potential of law, and through their multidisciplinary approach & intersectional initiatives, they ensure that our social & governance interventions have underpinnings of access to justice.

More information about them, and their partners can be found here. 

Law Foundation is a social work demonstration project, registered as a Trust in the year 2019 after a sustained endeavour of 3 years, of extending legal aid to under-trials lodged in various jails of Bihar under a Criminal Justice Fellowship Programme of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Law Foundation's thrusts are predominantly in areas of legal aid services, networking, training, research, and documentation, besides advocacy of custodial, institutional, legal, constitutional and fundamental rights of under-trials. It has also focused upon the rehabilitation and re-integration of socio-economically marginalized and vulnerable individuals and groups. To this end, it secured permission to visit

custodial institutions to interact with persons detained or confined in police stations, prisons and government residential institutions in Bihar, from the Bihar State Legal Services Authority and Hon'ble Chief Justices of the High Court of Judicature at Patna – Mr. Iqbal Ahmad Ansari and Mr. Rajendra Menon.