At The Leaflet, our most leading concern has always been the health of our constitutional polity – one moving into, changing within a rapidly growing world, but one that is to be rooted, grounded in human rights. Technology and particularly the internet, long ago, permeated substantive elements of our existence, and is today, also, a substantive regulatory concern for our governments – in that sense, the law and legal regimes have been discussed in the context of adapting to innovation, and opening up the space for these transformations – even the ones whose impact on humanity we are yet to fully grasp, like artificial intelligence. The law is also to be discussed in terms of its role in being used, abused and misused to further the ends of digital authoritarianism – which in our country remains a growing concern with India evolving one of the world’s most intricate frameworks for digital censorship in the past few years from within the regime of the IT Act.
Legal and political design will mediate technology’s direction as it rapidly innovates and fundamentally alters our realities. There is a growing sense for the need of dedicated, rigorous scholarship on law and technology that brings together technical know-how and industry challenges, but with a deep sense of what the larger public interest demands. As our courts move more increasingly towards integration with technology, what digital policies must guide this evolution of access to justice? As AI evolves increasingly, seeping into our everyday life, and into the lives, also, of lawyers – in chambers, in corporate law offices and everywhere else – with the slow emergence of a formal industry of AI legal assistance tools, it is important to pause and ask what turns these transformations will take. Understanding these technical revolutions with all their nuances, and thinking deeply about the regulatory regimes around them – not simply to usher in these changes, but also in the interest of the rights of our citizens - their privacy, their freedom of speech on the internet, their right not to be discriminated in the age of algorithmic discrimination - is fundamentally important.
This column will be a humble attempt to bring together expert commentary from diverse aspects of law and technology, in a way that innovates our pursuit of scientific temperament, but by rooting everything into the rights-based, moral foundations of our constitution.
Warmly,
Sushovan Patnaik,
Associate Editor
The Leaflet
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The Law and Technology Column, developed in collaboration with The Leaflet and Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), represents a significant academic–industry initiative focused on the intersection of law and emerging technologies. This platform facilitates engagement between legal scholarship and public discourse by presenting complex technological and legal and ethical issues in an accessible manner to a wider audience.
The column explores critical themes such as artificial intelligence governance, data protection, cybersecurity, platform accountability, and digital rights. These topics are examined within both Indian and global regulatory frameworks, providing insights into the necessary evolution of legal systems in response to rapid technological change.
A key strength of this initiative lies in its interdisciplinary and policy-oriented approach. By combining academic rigour with journalistic outreach, the column not only contributes to scholarly debates but also informs policymakers, practitioners, and the general public. It plays a crucial role in promoting awareness about legal and ethical concerns, including algorithmic bias, surveillance, and the protection of fundamental rights in the digital age.
Overall, the collaboration between The Leaflet and CNLU in curating the Law and Technology Column underscores the importance of institutional partnerships in promoting informed, inclusive, and forward-looking discourse on technology regulation.
Dr. Sadaf Fahim,
Assistant Professor of Law,
Chanakya National Law University, Patna
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A fresh chapter begins April 4th, 2026 - not just another webpage going live. Instead, it emerges quietly amid shifting currents, shaped by how machines now reshape influence. This space forms slowly, built not for clicks or noise, but as an answer made tangible. Where control moves through code and networks, reflection must follow close behind. Thought takes form here because silence would mean surrender. Power changes shape these days - so does responsibility.
The Column, against the backdrop of Advancing Technology and Safeguarding Rights (that emphasis is our Column’s tagline), peeks into changes happening right now - ones tied to tech advances such as artificial intelligence spreading wide across daily life. Not just lawmakers, judges, or agencies shape rules anymore; hidden forces do too. Think code, online platforms, how data flows, machines making choices. These quietly nudge what people say, how markets run, who gets in, how selves are seen, even how authority works, all at huge scale. Shifts pile up without fanfare, yet they reshape the ground beneath.
Here, the issues feel both old and strangely new. Placed into settings where fairness matters, they shift shape entirely. Accountability steps forward when rules are made behind closed doors. Equal treatment stumbles as systems grow opaque. Decisions once public now hide within code. Privacy bends under pressure from unseen hands. Structures meant to protect begin serving different masters. Oversight loses grip when speed replaces care. Legitimacy fades if no one can trace the source. Power moves quietly, reshaping what people actually live through. Rights slip while processes claim neutrality. In practice, these forces redefine daily reality.
This moment shows our team’s steady work to protect human rights - a quiet addition to conversations about tech, seen less as dazzling progress or something unavoidable, yet shaped by law and the constitution instead.
Looking at things through a developing-country perspective, this Column focuses on how India meets tech and change amid huge populations, gaps in wealth, spotty infrastructure, mismatched resources across regions. Because of this reality, simply copying today’s international rules misses the point. Instead, those frameworks need questioning, reshaping, sometimes pushing back - yet never overlooking them altogether. This space aims to keep that kind of thinking alive, steady, grounded.
Our Column will publish analytical articles, opinion pieces, explainers, case analyses, legislative trackers, and book reviews. Its strength will depend on the quality of its arguments, the seriousness of its research, and the willingness of contributors to engage with difficult questions carefully and honestly.
Fresh thinking earns a place here - sharp, clear, built on reason. Not just outlining facts, our space leans into ideas, rules, how systems take shape across places. The goal? Hard, yes - but within reach - to link study with real talk, legal thought with bold solutions, research with worldwide rule-making debates.
This is the beginning of that effort - an attempt to build a platform that treats technological change with intellectual discipline and legal responsibility.
We aim to build shared projects through joint effort, blending insights from different fields so legal experts, researchers, officials, and tech builders can engage - yet what matters most is guiding everyday people, since staying informed isn’t optional but part of how we live by founding principles without losing sight of real-world effects.
Also, in that spirit, the Column is a commitment to continuity. It should remain open to disagreement, constructive criticism, attentive to institutional nuance, and disciplined in tone. If the platform succeeds, it will do so because of its faith with rigor, relevance, and responsibility in public life.
Harsh Gour,
Founder & Curator,
Law & Technology Column,
The Leaflet