Call for Case Comment - State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
CASE COMMENT ON
STATE OF PUNJAB v. DAVINDER SINGH [2024 INSC 562]
Volume 37(2): General Issue
The National Law School of India Review (NLSIR) is pleased to invite Case Comments for its forthcoming General Issue (Volume 37(2)). NLSIR is a bi-annual, double-anonymous peer-reviewed, student-edited law journal published by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, with a longstanding commitment to critical legal scholarship and engagement with constitutional transformation in India. NLSIR has also been cited by various High Courts across India and by foreign courts, including the High Court of South Africa.
This call is open only to undergraduate law students (5-year BA LL.B. and 3-year LL.B.) of any law school/department/university recognised by the Bar Council of India. We invite Case Comments between 4,000 and 6,000 words, exclusive of footnotes.
The central point of discussion is a recent judgment of the Supreme Court in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh, where a seven-judge Constitution Bench revisited the logic of homogeneity within the Scheduled Caste category, reassessed the correctness of EV Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh, and validated the constitutional permissibility of sub-classification within SC/ST groups for the purposes of reservations.
The decision foregrounds questions about substantive equality, the architecture of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 341, and the allocation of institutional power between Parliament and State legislatures in designing redistributive schemes.
The judgment has generated academic, political, and social debate. It raises foundational concerns about:
- How courts should understand “backwardness” and “adequate representation”;
- Whether equality demands uniform treatment of all castes within the Presidential List or differentiated treatment for the most disadvantaged;
- The compatibility of sub-classification with the integrity of SC/ST lists;
- The role of empirical evidence and the creamy layer doctrine within SC/ST reservations;
- The broader trajectory of reservation jurisprudence after Indra Sawhney, M Nagaraj, Jarnail Singh, and EV Chinnaiah.
NLSIR invites authors to critically engage with State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh and its wider implications for Indian constitutional law and social justice.
Submissions may, for instance, examine:
- The Court’s shift from formal to substantive equality and its normative defensibility;
- The reconciliation (or tension) between Davinder Singh and EV Chinnaiah, Indra Sawhney, and related precedents;
- The implications of permitting sub-classification within SC/ST for federalism and state autonomy;
- The doctrinal status and future of the “creamy layer” principle within SC/ST quotas;
- The judgment’s impact on reservation in education and public employment;
- The role of empirical evidence and judicial oversight in redistributive schemes;
- Critical perspectives from anti-caste theory, political economy, or comparative constitutional law.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- Case Comments must be between 4,000 and 6,000 words (exclusive of footnotes).
- The submission must:
- Clearly identify the legal questions before the Court;
- Trace the line of precedent leading to State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh;
- Engage critically with the reasoning of the majority and any dissent;
- Assess implications for equality and reservation jurisprudence.
- Submissions must conform to the prescribed house style and citation format available on the NLSIR Repository.
- Manuscripts must be submitted only via the designated Google Form. Please access the submission form here. Submissions on the Digital Commons repository will not be evaluated for this purpose.
- Co-authorship (maximum two authors) is permitted.
Deadline: 30th April
Requests for extensions will not be entertained.
CONTACT
For queries, please write to mail.nlsir@gmail.com with the subject line “Case Comment – Davinder Singh”.
Further information on submission guidelines, timelines, and policies is available on the NLSIR Digital Commons Repository. Please note that NLSIR does not review proposed abstracts and will only review final submissions made through the Google Form.
We look forward to receiving your submissions and to fostering a rigorous and diverse conversation on State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh and the evolving contours of substantive equality and reservations in India.
Warm regards,
NLSIR Editorial Board 2025–26
