University Of Oxford Selects Advocate Dr. Saif Mahmood As Visiting Research Scholar

Dr. Saif Mahmood, Advocate, Supreme Court, has been selected by a Visiting Research Scholar by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.

He has been selected as a visiting scholar under their Research Visitor Programme for 2022 for the Hilary and Trinity terms.

His stint at Oxford will begin from 15th February 2022. Mahmood will be working on the status of free speech in Mughal courts with an emphasis on a comparative study on the treatment of literary and cultural dissent in the Mughal Era and Modern India.

Mahmood, apart from Supreme Court, also frequently appears before various other Indian courts as well as international and domestic arbitral tribunals. He has a Doctrorate in Comparative Constitutional Law in South Asia.He has handled litigation involving complex issues of Civil, Public and Constitutional Laws. He is also devoted to the resolution of Infrastructure, Inter-Corporate and Commercial disputes as well as the realms of Media and Entertainment Law. 

Recognized as an expert in Islamic Law in India, his works on the subject have been cited by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India in the celebrated Triple Talaq judgment [(2017) 9 SCC 1]. He currenly co-edits the Delhi High Court's Bar journal, Quarterly Bar Review. He is also known widely as a defender of free speech, democratic rights and other human rights, both in and outside courts.  

Mahmood is also an expert in Urdu literature and its cultural history. He is also the author of a recent best seller,  'Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets' (Speaking Tiger, New Delhi, 2018) is widely-recognized as an authoritative work on Urdu Poetry in Mughal Delhi. It has been taught at various universities in the West and cited in various articles.

Mahmood also advises several cultural and literary organizations in South Asia and is a familiar face on television channels and literature festivals, and his work appears regularly in national dailies and on news websites.