Dr. Anup Surendranath teaches Constitutional Law at NLU Delhi and is also Director of the Centre on the Death Penalty, which currently comprises the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic and the Death Penalty Research Project.
 

He was invited by Chief Justice RM Lodha (as he then was) in May 2014 to serve as the Deputy Registrar (Research) in the Supreme Court and was on deputation to the Supreme Court until August 2015. The only other instance of an academic being invited to the Supreme Court for a similar assignment was almost 30 years ago, in the late 80s, under Chief Justice PN Bhagwati.
 

The Death Penalty Research Project and the resultant Death Penalty India Report (released in May 2016) is of tremendous importance, given that it is the first-ever empirical work on the administration of the death penalty in India. The Project, initiated in June 2013 in collaboration with the National Legal Services Authority, seeks to develop a socio-economic profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India and also map their interaction with the criminal justice system. Over 90 students were involved with the project in different phases and the project was entirely supported by the University. The findings of the project received extensive and prominent coverage in the national media and was also covered by major international publications like the New York Times and The Guardian. 
 

To build on the work of the Death Penalty Research Project, the Centre on the Death Penalty was established at the University. Currently staffed with 18 full time staff comprising researchers, lawyers and administrative staff, the Centre is involved in the carrying out three major research projects and also in ensuring effective legal representation for 55 prisoners sentenced to death across various prisons in India. 


He has been responsible for establishing many student-led initiatives in the University like the INSAAF Legal Aid Project, Public Law and Policy Discussion Group and the Cinema Club.


His doctoral research at the University of Oxford, supervised by Professor Sandra Fredman, was on equality and anti-discrimination in the context of reservation (affirmative action) policies in India.
 

Education
 

D.Phil in Law, University of Oxford (May 2013)
M.Phil in Law (Distinction), University of Oxford (May 2010)
BCL (Distinction), University of Oxford (July 2008)
B.A., LL.B (Hons.), NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad (June 2006)

Scholarships

Felix Scholarship for the D.Phil in Law, University of Oxford
Gregory Kulkes Scholarship for the D.Phil in Law, University of Oxford
Peter Birks Memorial Scholarship for the M.Phil in Law, University of Oxford
Felix Scholarship for the BCL, University of Oxford

• Constitutional Law,
• Judicial Process,
• Criminal Justice Administration,
• Access to Justice,
• Comparative Human Rights
• Legal Pedagogy