Mayur Suresh

Lecturer in Law, SOAS London

In 2016, Mayur Suresh was awarded a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London for this thesis titled ‘Terrorist’ lives in Delhi’s courts: An ethnography of the legal worlds of terrorism trials. This research is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork terrorism cases that took place in Delhi’s trial courts. His research seeks to bring an anthropological perspective to the study of legal processes.

Prior to commencing his doctoral studies, Mayur practiced law in Delhi, where he and his colleagues represented a wide variety of clients: from women in domestic violence and matrimonial cases, to trade unions in industrial relations proceedings, to property disputes, to criminal defence and anti-terror cases. While most of this work was at the trial court level, Mayur was a part of the legal team in the Naz Foundation case – that successfully challenged India’s anti-homosexuality law in the Delhi High Court, and defended the judgment in the Supreme Court.

Mayur has co-edited a volume on the politics of the Indian Supreme Court titled The shifting scales of justice: The Supreme Court in Neoliberal India (2014). He is currently completing a book manuscript based on his doctoral research.