About Opportunity
The Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi (CCG), is calling for applications for the DIGITAL (Digital Rights and Inclusive Technology for All) Fellowship, to be offered to successful candidates for a period of 8 to 10 months. The Fellows will be hosted by a civil society organisation or litigation chambers (host organisations) to provide them with exposure to litigation research in digital rights and other areas. They will also develop legal and policy research under the guidance of the CCG. Over the course of the Fellowship, the host organisations will work on a range of cases across digital rights and other litigation subject areas. The Fellowship aims to create an enabling environment to provide Fellows with litigation skills and exposure across a range of subject areas.
With increasing internet penetration and the rapid increase of internet users in the country, digital rights have become a core focus within the ambit of the protection of fundamental rights. In the last few years, there have been several important judicial pronouncements stemming from digital rights litigation, whether it was the landmark Puttaswamy I judgement upholding the fundamental right to privacy in the Indian Constitution, or the more recent Anuradha Bhasin judgement, which clarified that the right to freedom of expression online was a fundamental right. However, several vital questions relating to freedom of expression and privacy in the digital age are yet to be clarified by the courts. For instance, India has recently passed laws on data protection and telecommunications, and is currently drafting legislation that will overhaul internet regulation and bring about a paradigm shift in internet law. Courts will play a key role in interpreting provisions in these laws in the coming years.
Litigation on these issues will define India’s digital rights landscape for at least the next decade, if not longer. Moreover, as digital technologies permeate ever-increasing avenues of our lives, litigation in general will need to grapple more frequently with the intersection of technology and society. However, digital rights litigation in India is currently facing significant challenges, including constraints in terms of research capacity and domain expertise.
To address these issues, CCG is excited to announce the third edition of the DIGITAL Fellowship in 2024.
The Fellowship has the following objectives:
- To support the development of digital rights and related subjects by providing high-quality legal research support to lawyers.
- To engage in and produce legal and policy research around the theme of digital rights.
- To build an inclusive and mutually supportive digital rights and technology policy community in India with a long-term vision for supporting the development of law and policy in this domain.
Award
