After more than a decade, all members of Project 39A will be moving out of National Law University Delhi. From 31st March 2025, we will collectively begin a new chapter at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad as The Square Circle Clinic. 

Whilst being a part of NALSAR, Hyderabad, we will have offices in Delhi, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Pune.

Our engagement with criminal justice through research, pro bono legal representation, and public discourse has been driven by our commitment to the constitutional vision of equal access to justice for all. At our new home, The Square Circle Clinic, we will deepen and expand this commitment. We will continue to build our diverse body of work on criminal justice issues, including on mental health, forensics, sentencing, legal aid, capital punishment, custodial violence, incarceration, prison art education and storytelling initiatives.

We are excited to further our vision of equal justice and equal opportunity across the country as part of The Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR. 

We thank National Law University Delhi for supporting the work we built over the years.

You can follow our work on Linkedin, Instagram, and Twitter.

The National Law University, Delhi was established in 2008 under the National Law University Act, 2007 with the objective of imparting comprehensive and interdisciplinary legal education. The University has signed several Memoranda of Understanding with national and international universities with a view to encourage collaborative academic activity. The University is committed to disseminating legal knowledge and developing the pedagogical acumen necessary to engage with contemporary legal issues of public importance.

Project 39A

Project 39A is inspired by Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution, a provision that furthers the intertwined values of equal justice and equal opportunity by removing economic and social barriers. These are constitutional values of immense importance given the manner in which multiple disparities intersect to exclude vast sections of our society from effectively accessing justice. Using empirical research to re-examine practices and policies in the criminal justice system, Project 39A aims to trigger new conversations on legal aid, torture, forensics, mental health in prisons, and the death penalty.

We are committed to ensuring that our engagement with the criminal justice system is based on rigorous empirical work. There is much to be gained from diligent documentation and analysis of the workings of the criminal justice system before heading down a prescriptive path. It is an oft-repeated truth that much of law-making in India lacks any real empirical basis and this is equally true for law and policy making in the criminal justice system. The dismal state and sometimes the absence of record-keeping in the police, prisons and courts along with multiple barriers to accessing records/ data complicates criminal justice research in India. Nonetheless, it is important that as a university we utilise the resources, expertise and access to networks available to us to overcome these barriers and take these difficult conversations forward.

As important as rigorous research is our commitment to effective communication of our work. Issues involving the criminal justice system need to be effectively communicated to audiences far beyond lawyers, judges and the bureaucracy. It is critical that we clearly convey that everyone has a stake in the health of the criminal justice system and that its fault lines must concern us all.

Researching the criminal justice system often forces us to confront harsh individual and systemic realities and issues of legal representation and intervention also lie at the core of Project 39A’s mandate. Being acutely aware that credible research rides on its independence, robust ethical frameworks guide the separation of our research and representation efforts.

As a law school, we do believe that it is part of our core mandate to contribute to the realisation of the values of equal and fair access to justice. Our work has benefited greatly from the many individuals, organisations and agencies, who have supported and encouraged our work. The work we do has also benefited in equal measure from specialised knowledge in forensic psychiatry, social work, medical and forensic sciences, anthropology, literature and economics. We intend to continue along this path of meaningful and intense interdisciplinary engagement to ensure that the law reflects learnings from multiple perspectives.