In a case involving the interpretation of the Copyright Act of 1957, Justice Prathiba M. Singh of the Delhi High Court has appointed Arul George Scaria, a law professor, as an expert to assist the court. Prof. Scaria’s appointment is an opportunity to assess the role of law professors in society. The core occupation of a law professor is to teach and push the frontiers of knowledge through research and scholarly engagements. But they have much more to offer provided the system gives them the right opportunities. Do India’s judiciary and the executive employ the expertise of law professors?
The examples of their doing so are sporadic. Shamnad Basheer, a celebrated academic in the field of intellectual property law, who died at 43, assisted the Supreme Court as an ‘academic intervenor’ in Novartis v. Union of India (2012). Aparna Chandra and Mrinal Satish served as amicus curiae before the Delhi High Court. Legendary academics such as Upendra Baxi and Lotika Sarkar have voluntarily intervened in matters of importance, compelling courts to take them up. On select occasions, the Supreme Court has appointed law professors such as Mool Chand Sharma as Joint Registrar (Research) and Anup Surendranath and Daniel Mathew as Deputy Registrars (Research). V.S. Mani was part of the team that represented India before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the 1999 aerial incident case involving India and Pakistan. The Law Commission has employed the services of law professors to draft reports batting for law reforms. In some instances, parliamentary committees have invited law professors to depose as expert witnesses in important matters. The executive has also appointed law professors to serve in different committees.
