Supreme Court lawyer Dr Saif Mahmood chosen by University of Oxford as Visiting Research Scholar

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford has selected Supreme Court lawyer Dr Saif Mahmood as a Visiting Research Scholar under its Research Visitor Programme for 2022.

While in residence at Oxford from February 15, Mahmood will work on the status of free speech in Mughal courts with a focus on the treatment of literary and cultural dissent in modern India.

Dr Mahmood, who holds a doctorate in Comparative Constitutional Law in South Asia, has a successful record of defending free speech, democratic rights of the people and other human rights, both in and outside courts, and of handling litigation involving complex issues of civil, public and Constitutional Laws.

Recognized as an expert in Islamic Law in India, his works on the subject were cited by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in the celebrated Triple Talaq judgment.

He co-edits the Quarterly Bar Review, the journal of the Delhi High Court Bar Association.

Mahmood is also an expert in Urdu literature and its cultural history. His bestselling book on Urdu poetry in Mughal Delhi, 'Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets' (Speaking Tiger, New Delhi, 2018) is widely-recognized as an authoritative work and is being taught at various universities in the West while also being cited in peer-reviewed articles and research theses.