India’s Queasy Federalism

Swapnil is the Lead at Charkha (Centre for Constitutional Law) at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are judicial review and constitutional interpretation, with a particular focus on Public Interest Litigation. He read law at the NLU, Jodhpur, and thereafter pursued the BCL and the DPhil at the University of Oxford. He has worked with leading academics on projects involving constitutional reform and democratic transitions, and has also assisted in drafting constitutions for various bodies. His academic writing spans both peer-reviewed journals and public-facing platforms, including a fortnightly column for Bar & Bench titled 'Tryst with the Constitution'. Committed to constitutional literacy, he runs The Basic Structure, a widely read blog that simplifies constitutional law for general audiences. He also collaborates with students across universities to establish forums on constitutional law. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, nominated in recognition of his work in the United Kingdom.

Aditya is Lead, Vidhi Bengal. He was formerly a Senior Resident Fellow with the Research Director’s Office at Vidhi, where he advised Ministries of the Government of India in drafting legislation across various sectors such as tribunal reforms, cinematography, regulation of nuclear energy, MSMEs, and the repeal of obsolete legislation. He contributes regularly to national dailies such as the Times of India and Hindustan Times on issues of public law and policy. Aditya is also a part-time PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, where he is a Wright Rogers scholar and Lucy Cavendish Law Enrichment scholar, studying universal adult franchise in India. He holds a BA LLB (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, and an LLM (First Class) from the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded two Faculty Prizes for Advanced Public Law and Comparative Legal History and the Emmeline Pankhurst Prize for his contributions to Lucy Cavendish College.