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received global recognition
for their fight against
the criminalization of
homosexuality with the
Time Magazine adding
them in the list of 100
influential persons.
60
“Arundhati and Menaka
have helped take a giant
step for LGBTQ+ rights
in the world’s largest
democracy.
In their
committed
fight for
justice,
they have
shown us
that we as a
society must
continue
to make
progress,
even after
laws are
changed,
and that we
must make
an effort to
understand,
accept
and love”,
wrote actor
Priyanka Chopra about
them in the Time.
Menaka Guruswamy,
who was designated as
Senior Advocate by the
Supreme Court in March
2019, is a 1997 graduate
of National Law School of
India University, Bangalore.
She read law as a Rhodes
WWW.WISHESH.NET | AUGUST 2019
Scholar at Oxford University
where she was awarded a
Doctor of Philosophy in Law
(D. Phil.) and as a Gammon
fellow for a Masters in Law at
Harvard Law School.
She has worked as a human
rights consultant to the United
Nations and has taught at the
New York University School
of Law. In the Navtej Johar
case which decriminalized
homosexuality, Guruswamy
represented IIT students and
graduates who belong to the
LGBTQIA community. She had
also assisted the SC as amicus
in the Manipur extra-judicial
killings case. She has the rare
honor of having her portrait
unveiled at Rhodes House in
Oxford University. Her name
was included in the Forbes list
of 2019 trailblazers.
Arundhati holds a BA LLB
(Hons.) degree from the
National Law School of India
University, and an LLM from
Columbia Law School, where
she was a Human Rights
Fellow, James Kent Scholar,
and Public Interest Honoree.
She has taught white-collar
crime law
at the
National Law
University,
Delhi, and
worked
with India’s
National
Commission
for Protection
of Child
Rights to
draft the
Protection
of Children
from Sexual
Offenses Act,
2012.
For over
three years,
Arundhati
served as a public defender
with the Delhi High Court
Legal Services Committee,
India’s top legal aid program.
In this role, she argued
almost 100 appellate cases
before the Delhi High Court.
Her pro bono work involves
representing child sexual
abuse survivors in cases
against their abusers.