Diksha Sanyal

Bio:

Diksha joined the UCL Faculty of Law as an MPhil/PhD candidate in September 2023. She holds a master’s degree in Human Rights Law, Conflict, and Justice from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) where she graduated with Distinction as a Felix Scholar. Before starting her PhD, she taught Family Law, Gender & Society, and Queer Advocacy & Jurisprudence in Indian universities.

Her research lies at the intersection of gender, sexuality, family, and constitutional law, focusing on the legal regulation of families, particularly queer relationships and non-traditional family structures, through the lenses of equality, anti-discrimination, and human rights law. Her PhD thesis explores how couples in non-marital relationships navigate legal ambiguities using quasi-legal instruments like ‘live-in agreements’ and examines the impact on gender and sexual minorities in India.

She is also interested in access to justice and institutional reform. Before academia, she worked with a legal policy think tank in New Delhi, conducting empirical research on judicial diversity and court accessibility in India. She is committed to bridging academia, policy, and practice by generating accessible research that informs legal reform to advance social equity.

Representative publications: 

Diksha Sanyal & Arijeet Ghosh, ‘Exploring Marital Status Discrimination in India: Prospects and Possibilities’ in Anuja Agarwal (ed), Family Studies, Oxford India Studies in Contemporary Society (OUP 2024) 

Diksha Sanyal, ‘Going Beyond Marriage: A Case for Relational Equality’ (Supreme Court Observer, 10 May, 2023) <https://www.scobserver.in/journal/going-beyond-marriage-a-case-for-relational-equality/>