Home Institution India: Independent Lawyer

Ms. Payoshi Roy has practiced as a criminal defense lawyer since graduating from National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2015. Her practice focuses on representing prisoners on death row and indigent persons sentenced to life imprisonment before the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court. In defending activists and terror accused, she has contested state excesses and abuse of anti-terror legislations in India. She also represents victims in custodial death cases challenging police impunity to ensure prosecution of police officers. Outside of courts, she has taught courses on capital punishment and criminal law in law schools across India.

Through her master’s in law as a Fulbright-Nehru fellow, Ms. Roy is undertaking comparative interdisciplinary research on sentencing, abuse of anti-terror laws, and institutional reform.

Ms. Nikita Agarwal is a lawyer, policy practitioner, and community educator. She started out as a policy practitioner in 2013, focusing on addressing the food security crisis and gender-based violence in India, and built her legal practice to bridge the gap between the theoretical and practical applications of law. She has primarily represented indigenous communities in the conflict zone of South Chhattisgarh, and women, children, and religious minorities in Delhi.

Ms. Agarwal was appointed member of the Committee Against Sexual Harassment of the Chhattisgarh Bar Council. She regularly drafts workplace sexual harassment policies and is a gender and sexuality trainer. Through her research and documentation work, she has engaged with issues around labor, conflict, gender and sexuality, forest rights, and the criminalization of the lives of indigenous people and de-notified tribes, among others.

Ms. Agarwal is a graduate of National Law University, Delhi. As a student, she founded the student volunteer group Aaghaaz to provide need-based education to women and children on campus and outside. She simultaneously became involved with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a people’s anti-displacement resistance movement in Madhya Pradesh, which helped her understand the need to work with law in a holistic manner—synergizing reform processes, litigation, and community mobilizing.

During her Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Ms. Agarwal aims to study the U.S. criminal justice and legal aid systems. After completing her fellowship, Ms. Agarwal intends to build a practice with community lawyers and paralegals, to addresses the crisis of legal aid in India.

Praavita Kashyap is a practicing advocate in New Delhi, specializing in criminal law. She represents the defense and complainants across various subject areas including criminal defamation, homicidal crimes, and sexual violence, as well as individuals charged under India’s anti-terrorism laws. She has worked on several trials of public significance.

For the last decade, Praavita has been associated with social movements and campaigns. Her experience working with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan on the Right to Information and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act fostered her understanding of transformative, participatory approaches to drafting law. Around 2015, she documented constitutional cases regarding the impact of technological interventions in welfare. In 2017, she was instrumental in establishing a campaign critiquing India’s unique biometric identification project. She then founded the ‘Article 21 Trust’ to work on issues at the intersection of welfare and technology.

Praavita holds an LLB from Delhi University, a BA (Hons.) in philosophy from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and an MA in human rights from Sciences Po, Paris. Her studies are motivated by her commitment to social justice.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Praavita is studying data governance law, criminal procedure, and constitutional rights, and learn strategies from the rich history of movement lawyering in the US. This will strengthen her work with social movements to bridge the disjunct between technology policy, the law and lived experiences of the marginalized. Praavita plans to return to India to continue her independent litigation practice and shape creative, participatory policy in India.