The halls of NLU Delhi just got a little sharper.
Senior Advocate Dr Sidharth Luthra has been appointed as the KL Arora Chair Professor in Criminal Law at the National Law University Delhi—a role reserved for those who don’t just know the law but have lived, shaped, and debated it across decades.
This Chair, created in 2011 through the initiative of former Supreme Court Justice DP Wadhwa, isn’t just another academic post. It’s a pulpit for serious legal thought—where the abstract meets the actionable. It’s been previously occupied by legal thinkers like Prof BB Pande, Prof K Chockalingam, and Prof GS Bajpai—each a heavyweight in their own right.
Now, Dr Luthra steps into this intellectual lineage with over 30 years of experience tucked under his robe. A product of the University of Delhi and the University of Cambridge—where he earned his M.Phil in Criminology—he’s not new to academia. He taught at Delhi University back in 1997-98 and is also a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Society, carrying the kind of gravitas only earned over decades in courtrooms, classrooms, and conference halls.
NLU Delhi called the appointment a “distinction and privilege”—a sentiment few would dispute. After all, in an era where criminal law is under constant public and legislative scrutiny, bringing a practitioner-scholar like Dr Luthra into the fold sends a clear message: the university intends to stay at the forefront of both thought and action.
