Legal expert on citizenship, statelessness, immigration, asylum and human rights in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh
I am a PhD candidate and Research Assistant at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. My research examines how cross-border displacement affects nationality in the context of climate change and disasters.
Before my PhD, I worked for five years as Assistant Professor and Assistant Director, Centre for Public Interest Law at Jindal Global Law School in India where I taught courses on international law and human rights. In 2020-21, I taught India’s first ‘Legal Clinic on Citizenship and Statelessness in India’. As the Assistant Director, I collaborated with national and international experts to conduct research on citizenship and statelessness in India.
I am a Guest Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh where I teach an annual seminar on citizenship in India. From 2021-2024, I was a Visiting Professor at Université Catholique de Lille in France where I taught an in-person intensive LLM course on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
I also serve on the Advisory Group of the regional coalition Statelessness & Dignified Citizenship (Asia-Pacific) where independent expert advice on strategy, policies and membership related issues. From 2022 to 2024, I supported the organisation Nationality for All as an advisor in the creation of this regional coalition.
Legal and policy expertise on civil liberties and human rights in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, particularly citizenship, statelessness, asylum and immigration matters.
My subject expertise for each country includes –
India: law and policy expertise on asylum, immigration, refugees, citizenship, statelessness, detention, sexual and gender-based violence, caste discrimination and violence, family law, child rights, healthcare, policing, civil liberties and human rights.
Nepal: citizenship, statelessness, refugees, sexual and gender-based violence, caste discrimination and violence, healthcare (including elder care and mental health), policing, civil liberties and human rights.
Pakistan: citizenship, statelessness, refugees, sexual and gender-based violence, political persecution, healthcare (including mental health), policing, civil liberties and human rights.
Bangladesh: citizenship, statelessness, refugees, sexual and gender-based violence, political persecution, religious persecution, healthcare, policing, civil liberties and human rights.
I have provided various reports to leading barristers, chambers, solicitors and law firms in the UK and Canada. Since 2023, my reports have successfully supported the clients in immigration and human rights proceedings before relevant tribunals.
I am currently pursuing a PhD at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School where my research is focused on nationality and displacement. Previously, I completed an LLM in international law and human rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and an LLB at the University of Delhi, India.
- A new immigration law reflects India’s rising paranoia over the ‘undesirable outsider’ (The Indian Express, May 2025)
- Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violations and Exclusion in India’s Citizenship Trials (2025)
- CAA will not help persecuted Hindus, Sikhs from neighbouring countries (The Indian Express, March 2024)
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Reconceptualising 'Genuine Link': a way to claim the right to nationality in Assam
Forthcoming book chapter in ‘Nationality Struggles in the 21st Century and its Social Costs in Asia’ (project led by Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne and Centre for Asian Legal Exchange, Nagoya University)
- Kiran Gupta v The State Election Commission & Ors Letters Patent Appeal No. 139 of 2020 in Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case no. 19109 of 2019, Patna HC, Jindal Global Law Review, Vol. 12(1), 2021
- On the verge: Revocation and denial of citizenship in India in ‘Revocation of Citizenship: The New Policies of Conditional Membership’, EUI Working Papers (January 2021)
- Research Supervisor on International Law and Due Process: Evaluating the Foreigners Tribunals in Assam project
- The NRC in Assam doesn’t just violate human rights of millions – it also breaks international law, Scroll.in (January 2021)
- What India Legally Owes 1.9 Million People Held As Non-Citizens, Article-14.com (January 2021)
- Securing Citizenship: India’s legal obligations towards precarious citizens and stateless persons (September 2020; Research Supervisor and co-author)