28ᵗʰ Annual H.M. Seervai Essay Competition in Constitutional Law
January 16, 2025
The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, invites entries for the 28ᵗʰ Annual H.M. Seervai Essay Competition in Constitutional Law. Participants in this pan-India essay competition stand a chance to win the prestigious H.M. Seervai Gold Medal from NLSIU. The winning essay will be published in the National Law School Journal.
About the competition
In 1997, Senior Advocate Navroz Seervai instituted a Gold Medal in the name of the distinguished jurist, the late H.M. Seervai, for the best original essay written on the themes specified in Indian Constitutional Law. Over the years, this essay writing competition has become a prestigious event for law students all over India. The significant rise every year in the number of contributions from the student community shows their mark of respect and tribute to one of the greatest legal luminaries of our country, Hormasji Maneckji Seervai.
The last gold medal was awarded to Abhinav Ravi, National Law University Delhi for his essay on ‘The Indian Fourth Branch: Developing A New Institutional Morality.’ Read the winning essay here.
Essay topic
‘How should Indian Election Law be amended to strengthen Indian constitutional democracy?’
Eligibility
Students currently enrolled in an LL.B./B.A., LL.B./BBA, LL.B./B.Com., LL.B. regular mode programme in any recognised Law School/College/University in India may make a submission.
Submission guidelines
- Each entry should be an original, unpublished, single-authored essay in English.
- Every essay must clear anti-plagiarism checks & be supported by a bonafide certificate, duly signed by the Registrar / Vice-Chancellor or other Appropriate Authority.
- Entries should be formatted in Times New Roman, size 12 font, double-spaced on an A4 sheet, & carefully referenced using the OSCOLA citation style.
- Word limit: 7,000-10,000 words (inclusive of footnotes).
- Submission Deadline: Extended to April 30, 2025
To submit your essay, click here.
Note: There is no prior registration required as the essay has to be directly submitted through the form.
The University reserves the right to conduct interviews with selected candidates.
For any queries, please write to
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We ask for a bona fide certificate as proof of your enrolment in a college/university. It can be a digitally signed document too. But in case you are unable to procure it, you may submit your college ID card as proof.
Unfortunately, no. Only undergraduate students, either foreign or Indian, currently enrolled in a recognised law school/college/university in India for an LLB or BA LLB or BBA LLB or BCom LLB regular mode programme can participate. Indian or foreign students enrolled in universities outside of India are not eligible.
No. At the time of submission, students must be enrolled in LLB or BA LLB or BBA LLB or BCom LLB regular mode programme in any recognised law school/college/university in India.
You are eligible to participate if you can provide a bona fide certificate from your institution as proof of enrolment.
The competition is only for undergraduate students.
As long as you are still enrolled in your college at the time of submission, you are eligible to participate.
We are unable to provide individual acknowledgments for submissions.
The essay can be submitted either in MS Word or PDF format. Please also remember to mention the total word count in your submission.
The use of speaking footnotes is permitted, though we encourage you to keep them to a minimum.
Co-authored essays will not be accepted. A submission must have a single author to be considered for the competition.
The essay competition requires individual submissions. Entries cannot be submitted on behalf of the college.
No, there is no registration fee.
OSCOLA, the recommended citation style guide for the essay contest, follows only a footnote citation system.
The double spacing is only for the main text. Footnotes can be single-spaced.
There are no specific guidelines for formatting headings. However, if your essay contains multiple levels of headings, we recommend numbering them clearly, for example, 1 for section heading, 1.1 for sub-section heading, and so on. But, please add a title for the essay.
There is no explicit requirement for an abstract. However, since abstracts can make long essays easier to navigate, you may consider including a summary of 150 words maximum. Please note that the abstract will not be counted towards your total word count.
The results of the competition are generally announced during the month of August/September on the NLSIU website. Only the winning candidate will receive communication over email.
Only one winning essay will be selected, which will be awarded the gold medal. We don’t provide participation certificates.
We will reach out to the winning candidate detailing all the processes.
Not required. We will conduct our own plagiarism checks.
All essays apart from the winning essay may be published elsewhere after the results are announced.