Home Institution India: Lawyer

Ms. Shristi Borthakur is a lawyer practicing in New Delhi and works on disability rights. Shristi’s work is deeply influenced by personal experience, driving her to focus on disability rights, especially for persons with mental and development disabilities. She works closely with persons with disabilities, caregivers, educators, and special schools to access legal protections, such as appointment of a guardian, travel regulations, access to higher education, insurance, estate planning, and so on. Her long-term goal is to contribute to the development of disability rights jurisprudence in India, including legal reforms addressing transition to adulthood, guardianship, training modules for lawyers and judges, and policy integration.

She holds a BA LLB degree from Symbiosis Law School. She worked for five years at the office of senior advocate Ms Arundhati Katju and also independently argued cases. She has worked on diverse cases ranging from civil to commercial and criminal to constitutional before the Supreme Court. Notably, Shristi has worked on the landmark case of marriage equality before the Indian Supreme Court, an experience that shaped her commitment to constitutional and social justice.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Shristi is pursuing a Master of Laws degree to undertake a study on the equivalent disability laws and processes in the United States and test their applicability to the existing framework in India. She is focusing on public and social infrastructure that exists in the US, and its impact on people with disabilities. Shristi plans to continue to build her independent litigation practice in India.

Ms. Natasha Maheshwari is a constitutional and human rights lawyer. She graduated from the Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai in 2021, after which she has been practising in New Delhi – first at the chambers of Ms Vrinda Bhandari, and then with senior advocates Mr Shadan Farasat and Ms Warisha Farasat.

Natasha’s practice is focused on expanding, broadening, and reshaping the contours of the right to freedom of speech and expression in India, as well as limiting the increasingly aggressive attempts made by private and public institutions to interfere with this right.

Natasha has worked on more than 30 cases involving the regulation and restriction of speech, press freedoms, intermediary liability, and digital rights. Alongside litigation, Natasha has taught certificate courses on digital rights and cybercrimes, contributed to research and scholarship on the subject, and advised intergovernmental organisations and corporates on tech policy.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Natasha is studying comparative constitutional law and American constitutional law and theory. In particular, she wants to compare doctrine and standards of review used by Indian and American courts while determining the constitutionality of measures limiting free speech.

Ms. Manasa Ramakrishna is a lawyer specializing in criminal law, constitutional rights, and the death penalty. She has worked at The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law (formerly known as Project 39A) where she represented individuals on death row before the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts. Her work with prisoners and their families and the lived realities of the criminal justice system informs her interest in the structural and institutional dimensions of the criminal justice system. She has also contributed to research and strategic litigation at the intersection of criminal and constitutional law.

Manasa graduated from Jindal Global Law School with a BA LLB (Hons) degree in 2020. Thereafter, she worked at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai, where she advised on white-collar crime, arbitration, and commercial disputes. This experience sharpened her understanding of institutional processes and accountability, which continues to inform her approach to criminal law.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Manasa is studying criminal law and procedure and constitutional theory. She will engage with interdisciplinary approaches in the United States to deepen her understanding of the criminal justice system. Manasa hopes to build her litigation practice and contribute to rights-based criminal justice advocacy in India.

Ms. Aparimita Pratap is a lawyer with over seven years of experience, currently working at the intersection of criminal law, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and access to justice for marginalized communities in India. She holds a BA LLB (Hons) from The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (2019).

Aparimita designed and led a legal aid program at the Migration and Asylum Project, a New Delhi-based refugee legal aid center. Her work focused on increasing legal awareness on SGBV, training beneficiaries and creating community structures such as legal aid clinics and women’s groups where beneficiaries could openly discuss violence. She worked on strengthening the capacity of private and state actors to respond to SGBV, training paralegal volunteers, legal aid lawyers, women panchayats, and counsellors across Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh.

Alongside, Aparimita has represented over 100 survivors and built a network of lawyers to expand legal representation in SGBV cases. She has also used strategic litigation, including before the Delhi High Court, challenging coercive mediation in domestic violence cases. She now has independent practice and continues this work.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellow, Aparimita is focusing on criminal law and trauma-informed, survivor-centric jurisprudence in SGBV cases. She is studying how legal frameworks in the United States protect survivors during investigation and trial and will bring these learnings back to India to challenge gaps in criminal law through litigation and advocacy. She will also continue her work to improve the legal aid system in India.