Ms. Disha Wadekar is an advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India with a litigation experience of ten years. Her most notable work spans across multiple constitutional matters such as the Sabarimala temple entry case, EWS reservation case and the Hijab case. Ms. Wadekar is an LL.M. graduate from Columbia University, New York and a Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Scholar.
She has spearheaded petitions in the Indian Supreme Court to prohibit caste-based division of labour in Indian prisons and guidelines to prevent student suicides in higher educational institutions. In 2018, she was the only woman lawyer representing Dalit victims before the Bhima Koregaon Judicial Inquiry Commission. In 2022, she was appointed the Additional Special Public Prosecutor by the Government of Rajasthan in a case involving sexual violence against a Dalit girl, which led to the conviction of the accused after six long years. Additionally, as a litigation associate at Project 39A, she has represented many clients on death row in the Supreme Court of India. As the Standing Counsel for the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and a panel counsel with the Supreme Court Legal Service Committee, she regularly represents clients from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds before the Supreme Court of India.
Ms. Wadekar has taught courses on Constitutional Law and Critical Caste Studies at the National Law University, Delhi and O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat. In 2021, Ms Wadekar co-founded Community for the Eradication of Discrimination in Education and Employment (CEDE) —an organisation working towards a diverse and inclusive Indian legal profession and the judiciary. Her work has been published in many reputed journals and online portals.
