Chief Justice E.S. Venkataramiah Memorial Best Essay Prize 2026 (Inaugural Edition) by NLSIR, NLSIU Bengaluru [Cash Prize Rs 25,000 + Publication in NLSIR; No Fee]

The National Law School of India Review (NLSIR), the flagship student-edited, double-anonymous peer-reviewed law journal of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, has instituted the 'Chief Justice E.S. Venkataramiah Memorial Best Essay Prize'. It is an annual national essay competition open to undergraduate law students across India, instituted with the support of the family of the late Justice E.S. Venkataramiah. NLSIR announced the Prize on 5 August 2026 and the inaugural edition is now open.

Justice E.S. Venkataramiah served as the 19th Chief Justice of India, and earlier as Advocate General for the State of Mysore and a Judge of the High Court of Karnataka. After demitting office he returned to the classroom at NLSIU, where he held the M.K. Nambiar Chair in Constitutional Law and taught until his passing in 1997. The Prize is instituted in his memory to honour that commitment to legal scholarship.

The competition will be conducted between July and September every year, and each year's edition is organised around a contemporary and significant theme in law.

The theme for the inaugural edition is: "Does the Constitution Choose an Economic Model? Directive Principles and the Question of Ideological Neutrality".

In Property Owners' Association v. State of Maharashtra (2024), a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court considered whether all privately owned property falls within the expression "material resources of the community" under Article 39(b) of the Constitution. The majority held that it does not, reasoning that the Constitution does not commit India to any single economic ideology and that treating all private property as a material resource would require the Court to endorse a particular vision of the country's economic and social order.

The judgment raises a deeper constitutional question: can the Constitution, and particularly the Directive Principles dealing with ownership, distribution and the common good, ever be neutral between competing economic models? Or does interpreting these provisions inevitably involve normative choices about property, markets, redistribution and the role of the State?

The competition invites participants to engage with these questions through the lens of constitutional theory. Rather than writing a case comment, entrants should use Property Owners' Association as a starting point to explore whether, and to what extent, the Constitution embeds, permits or rejects particular economic visions.

Per the call, strong essays will engage with comparative constitutional perspectives, as well as political and economic theory, to reflect on the implications of these questions for constitutional interpretation.

• The competition is open to all undergraduate law students in India.
• Students enrolled in either the five-year or the three-year law programme may participate.
• The participant must be enrolled at a law school recognised by the Bar Council of India (BCI).
• Every essay must be supported by a bonafide certificate, duly signed by the Registrar, Vice-Chancellor or other appropriate authority, confirming enrolment as an undergraduate student in a law programme at the time of submission.

• Each entry must be an original, unpublished, single-authored essay in English.
• Every essay must clear anti-plagiarism checks.
• Word limit: 8,000 to 10,000 words, inclusive of footnotes.
• Abstracts or proposals are not required. NLSIR will not consider or review abstracts or proposals submitted separately.
• Every essay must comply with the NLSIR Style Guide and the other policies notified on the NLSIR Repository.

• Entries should be formatted in Times New Roman, size 12 font, 1.5 spaced, on an A4 sheet.
• Essays must be carefully referenced using the OSCOLA citation guide.

Shortlisted entries will be evaluated by a panel of eminent academics and practitioners with relevant subject-matter expertise.

The winning entry will be published in NLSIR. The winner will receive a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 and a citation plaque bearing the winner's name.

NLSIR has recorded its thanks to Hon'ble Mrs. Justice B.V. Nagarathna (Judge, Supreme Court of India) and Ms. Nayana Tara B.G. (Advocate and NLSIU alumna) for their support in making the Prize possible, and to Prof. (Dr.) Arun K. Thiruvengadam, Dr. Sidharth Chauhan, Mr. Kunal Ambasta and Ms. Hrishika Jain for their inputs in finalising the theme.

Submissions are made through a dedicated online form linked on the NLSIR Repository announcement page. That form begins accepting submissions from 1 September 2026 onwards. The submission deadline is 10 October 2026.

No prior registration and no registration fee is required. Interested participants may directly submit their manuscripts, provided they satisfy all the eligibility and submission requirements specified in the submission form.

For any queries, participants may write to nlsir.communications@nls.ac.in.

NLSIR is the flagship student-edited, bi-annual, double-anonymous peer-reviewed law journal of NLSIU, and is one of India's oldest student-edited law reviews, now in its 38th year of publication. It carries ISSN 0974-4894.

The journal has been cited by the Supreme Court of India in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, Unaided Private Schools of Delhi v. Director of Education, Union of India v. M/s Mohit Minerals and A.M.U. v. Naresh Agarwal. It has featured contributions from scholars and practitioners including Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Prof. Cass Sunstein, Prof. Jonathan Herring, Prof. Dev Gangjee, the late Fali Nariman and Arvind Datar.