Alternative Law Forum – Advocacy, Research and Litigation
Source: http://altlawforum.org
Archived: 2026-04-23 15:20
Alternative Law Forum – Advocacy, Research and Litigation
SUPPORT THE FIGHT TO UPHOLD CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES
Your contribution will help sustain our efforts in providing subsidised legal assistance and initiating and participating in advocacy efforts to realise the imagination of a society based on the tenets of the Constitution.
MAKE YOUR DONATION
In compliance with tax regulations, donations from Indian nationals are required to be collected separately.
If you are an Indian citizen and/or have an Indian passport, please click the following button to securely donate to ALF.
DONATE
NON-INDIAN CITIZENS
If you are not an Indian national and are interested to donate to ALF, please write to communications (at) altlawforum.org.
PEDAGOGY
CONSTITUTION
ALF is trying to bring the Constitution closer to people,
by making the language more accessible and
pushing for pedagogical interventions promoting its values.
KNOW MORE
ADVOCACY & RESEARCH
GENDER & SEXUALITY
Learn about ALF's ongoing campaign, to make laws, judgements
and information about gender and sexuality rights accessible and
available to all.
KNOW MORE
RESEARCH
GARMENT INDUSTRY AND LABOUR
In an ongoing research project to study industrial relations
between garment workers and their factory management,
ALF has produced reports studying the impact of the
pandemic on the garment workers.
READ ALL 3 REPORTS
Alternative Law Forum
UPDATES FROM ALF
Latest Publications Released: A Dream Deferred - One Year after the Denial of Marriage Equality
DONATE TO ALF
FRIDAY FORUMS
LIBRARY
Advocacy
Collaborate with grassroot level organisations and citizens' forums to facilitate dialoguing with the state
Research
To study and critically analyse issues concerning social justice and Constitutional rights of the people
Legal Assistance
To practise an alternative lawyering focussed on assisting victims of structural oppression
WRITINGS FROM ALF
IN THE PRESS
ದಿ ಕ್ರಿಮಿನಲ್ ಪ್ರೊಸಿಜರ್ (ಐಡೆಂಟಿಫಿಕೇಷನ್) ಬಿಲ್; ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಕಣ್ಗಾವಲಿನ ಕರಾಳ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಗೆ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಪುಷ್ಠಿ
ಹಿಂದೂ ದೇಗುಲಗಳನ್ನು ’ಪ್ರಭುತ್ವ ನಿಯಂತ್ರಣಮುಕ್ತ’ಗೊಳಿಸುವ ದುಷ್ಟ ಸಂಚು
How Places Matter – Understanding Workers’ Responses to Garment Factory Closures during the Pandemic in Bengaluru and Srirangapatna
ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಗ್ಗುತ್ತಿದೆ ಅಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯಾತರ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಿಕೆ
BSF operational jurisdiction: What is the notification all about?
Why we need to be concerned about the DNA Bill
Justice A.S. Oka: the judge known for taking suffering seriously
Anti-Trafficking Bill: A travesty of legal principles
Why transgender community is struggling inspite of NALSA judgment
After Bengaluru, it’s time to re-examine racism: It’s not just slurs and attacks
The Changing Face of the Family- Guardianship, Custody and the Law
Press Release: One year of NDA government
Forced Into Marriage by Social Pressures
For Those Marked “Other”
Net Neutrality for a Web of Equals
How AAP Could Decriminalise Homosexuality in the National Capital Region
Internet.org Comes to India
All Internet Users, Pay Attention
How Internet.org Presents An Opportunity To Rethink Freedom Of Speech
Thanks to CBFC, we need to come up with better abuses today
The Death Wish of the Constitution?
Ultranationalism: A Proposal for a Quiet Withdrawal
Remembering an Ally: GE Vahanvati’s Unique Contribution
ಕಾನೂನಿನ ಗೂಂಡಾಗಿರಿ, or Goondagiri of the Law (Kannada and English)
Remembering Naz
Ruling in India Not the Last Word
Not just his and hers
Third, but not separate
National Legal Services Authority versus Union of India — Preliminary Reactions
Crimes of Unreason
Penguin India served legal notice on agreement to withdraw and pulp “The Hindus: An Alternative History”
We Dissent
A Milestone Verdict in the Domestic Worker Struggle
Laws That Lack Foresight
Terror Has No Boundaries
Calling it what it is: Why India desperately needs a law on ‘lynching’
“Preamble embodies that this Constitution has its root, its authority, its sovereignty from the people.”
– Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Constituent Assembly Debates)
Alternative Law Forum works with the primary impetus to liberate the Constitution from the lawyers and the courts.
“The Constitution is founded in the fact that it is ‘we the people’ who ‘adopt, enact and give to ourselves’ this Constitution. The essence of the founding moment
We The People
of the Indian nation lies in the fact that it does not make allusions to a misty past but remains firmly tethered to the idea that the people of the country have given themselves the Constitution.”
– Excerpt from the book, The Preamble: A Brief Introduction. (
Download and read the full book here
)
21
YEARS OF WORK
Constitution
Caste
Criminal Law
Labour
Domestic Violence and Family Law
Intellectual Property
Media and Law
Technology and Law
Urban Governance
Gender and Sexuality
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
All our publications are available at our office.
To request for physical copies to be couriered to you, please send an email to communications(at)altlawforum.org.
Poster – Fundamental Duties
Poster – Directive Principles of State Policy
Poster – Castes are Anti-national
Standees on Equality and Fraternity
Standees – Significance of We The People
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: Collectivising Efforts in the Export Oriented Garment Industry in Bengaluru
Posters on Manual Scavenging
Posters – Dalits ownership of agricultural land in Karnataka
Posters – Myth busters regarding caste-based atrocities
Preamble in Karnataka’s languages
Brochures on Supriyo v. Union of India: One Year after the Denial of Marriage Equality to Queer Persons
A Dream Deferred – One Year After the Denial of Marriage Equality
SC ST Atrocities Act – Graphic Story Book
Resignations and Resistance Amidst State Inaction: Chronicling Garment Work During the Pandemic
Participation in Play – Demonstrating a Practicable Approach to People’s Participation in the Context of Policy Making during COVID-19
Preamble – A Brief Introduction | ‘ಸಂವಿಧಾನ ಪೀಠಿಕೆ – ಒಂದು ಪುಟ್ಟ ಮುನ್ನುಡಿ’ | उद्देशिका – संक्षिप्त परिचय
2nd Edition: Right to Love
Asserting Dignity In Times of COVID
Forced Resignations, Stealthy Closures
Laid-off during the pandemic: A case-study of the closure of a garment factory
Everyday Resistance
Garment Workers, COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown: A Report from South Karnataka
Street Vending: Pakka Legal! – A comic about the Street Vendors Act, and their right to livelihood
Sexual Harassment at Workplace
Conversations on Caste discrimination in South India
RIGHT TO LOVE: Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India- A Transformative Constitution and the Rights of LGBT Persons
Breathing Life Into The Constitution
Censor Me Not!
Dignity First: One Year of Resistance to Re-Criminalisation of LGBT Lives
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Book
Towards Gender Inclusivity
Sedition Laws & the Death of Free Speech in India
The Right That Dares To Speak Its Name
Guide to Workmen’s Compensation Act
Law Relating to Minimum Wages (English & Kannada)
Law, Legality and Power: ALF Reader
Queer: Law and Despised Sexualities in India (Book)
On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. [...] How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in
our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.
Dr. BR Ambedkar
Constitutent Assembly Debates
Liberty of speech means that it is unassailed even when the speech hurts; liberty of the press can be said to be truly respected only when the press can comment in the severest terms upon and even misrepresent matters.
MK Gandhi
A constitution is a political document which gives legal content to a set of pre-existing rights, secured politically by people's struggles. Rights have always been acquired, never granted. Freedom was acquired by the people from the British and not granted to us by
the Indian Independence Act, 1947.
K. Balagopal
Human Rights Activist
Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Annihilation of Caste
CONTACT US
E: contact@altlawforum.org
P: +91 080 22865757
Alternative Law Forum
GET IN TOUCH:
122/4 Infantry Road, Next to Balaji Art Gallery, Bangalore, India 560001 (Nearest bus stop: Shivajinagar)
Unless explicitly stated, all the material on this website can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial India 2.5 license.
SUPPORT THE FIGHT TO UPHOLD CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES
Your contribution will help sustain our efforts in providing subsidised legal assistance and initiating and participating in advocacy efforts to realise the imagination of a society based on the tenets of the Constitution.
MAKE YOUR DONATION
In compliance with tax regulations, donations from Indian nationals are required to be collected separately.
If you are an Indian citizen and/or have an Indian passport, please click the following button to securely donate to ALF.
DONATE
NON-INDIAN CITIZENS
If you are not an Indian national and are interested to donate to ALF, please write to communications (at) altlawforum.org.
PEDAGOGY
CONSTITUTION
ALF is trying to bring the Constitution closer to people,
by making the language more accessible and
pushing for pedagogical interventions promoting its values.
KNOW MORE
ADVOCACY & RESEARCH
GENDER & SEXUALITY
Learn about ALF's ongoing campaign, to make laws, judgements
and information about gender and sexuality rights accessible and
available to all.
KNOW MORE
RESEARCH
GARMENT INDUSTRY AND LABOUR
In an ongoing research project to study industrial relations
between garment workers and their factory management,
ALF has produced reports studying the impact of the
pandemic on the garment workers.
READ ALL 3 REPORTS
Alternative Law Forum
UPDATES FROM ALF
Latest Publications Released: A Dream Deferred - One Year after the Denial of Marriage Equality
DONATE TO ALF
FRIDAY FORUMS
LIBRARY
Advocacy
Collaborate with grassroot level organisations and citizens' forums to facilitate dialoguing with the state
Research
To study and critically analyse issues concerning social justice and Constitutional rights of the people
Legal Assistance
To practise an alternative lawyering focussed on assisting victims of structural oppression
WRITINGS FROM ALF
IN THE PRESS
ದಿ ಕ್ರಿಮಿನಲ್ ಪ್ರೊಸಿಜರ್ (ಐಡೆಂಟಿಫಿಕೇಷನ್) ಬಿಲ್; ಪೊಲೀಸ್ ಕಣ್ಗಾವಲಿನ ಕರಾಳ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಗೆ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಪುಷ್ಠಿ
ಹಿಂದೂ ದೇಗುಲಗಳನ್ನು ’ಪ್ರಭುತ್ವ ನಿಯಂತ್ರಣಮುಕ್ತ’ಗೊಳಿಸುವ ದುಷ್ಟ ಸಂಚು
How Places Matter – Understanding Workers’ Responses to Garment Factory Closures during the Pandemic in Bengaluru and Srirangapatna
ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಗ್ಗುತ್ತಿದೆ ಅಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯಾತರ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಿಕೆ
BSF operational jurisdiction: What is the notification all about?
Why we need to be concerned about the DNA Bill
Justice A.S. Oka: the judge known for taking suffering seriously
Anti-Trafficking Bill: A travesty of legal principles
Why transgender community is struggling inspite of NALSA judgment
After Bengaluru, it’s time to re-examine racism: It’s not just slurs and attacks
The Changing Face of the Family- Guardianship, Custody and the Law
Press Release: One year of NDA government
Forced Into Marriage by Social Pressures
For Those Marked “Other”
Net Neutrality for a Web of Equals
How AAP Could Decriminalise Homosexuality in the National Capital Region
Internet.org Comes to India
All Internet Users, Pay Attention
How Internet.org Presents An Opportunity To Rethink Freedom Of Speech
Thanks to CBFC, we need to come up with better abuses today
The Death Wish of the Constitution?
Ultranationalism: A Proposal for a Quiet Withdrawal
Remembering an Ally: GE Vahanvati’s Unique Contribution
ಕಾನೂನಿನ ಗೂಂಡಾಗಿರಿ, or Goondagiri of the Law (Kannada and English)
Remembering Naz
Ruling in India Not the Last Word
Not just his and hers
Third, but not separate
National Legal Services Authority versus Union of India — Preliminary Reactions
Crimes of Unreason
Penguin India served legal notice on agreement to withdraw and pulp “The Hindus: An Alternative History”
We Dissent
A Milestone Verdict in the Domestic Worker Struggle
Laws That Lack Foresight
Terror Has No Boundaries
Calling it what it is: Why India desperately needs a law on ‘lynching’
“Preamble embodies that this Constitution has its root, its authority, its sovereignty from the people.”
– Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Constituent Assembly Debates)
Alternative Law Forum works with the primary impetus to liberate the Constitution from the lawyers and the courts.
“The Constitution is founded in the fact that it is ‘we the people’ who ‘adopt, enact and give to ourselves’ this Constitution. The essence of the founding moment
We The People
of the Indian nation lies in the fact that it does not make allusions to a misty past but remains firmly tethered to the idea that the people of the country have given themselves the Constitution.”
– Excerpt from the book, The Preamble: A Brief Introduction. (
Download and read the full book here
)
21
YEARS OF WORK
Constitution
Caste
Criminal Law
Labour
Domestic Violence and Family Law
Intellectual Property
Media and Law
Technology and Law
Urban Governance
Gender and Sexuality
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
All our publications are available at our office.
To request for physical copies to be couriered to you, please send an email to communications(at)altlawforum.org.
Poster – Fundamental Duties
Poster – Directive Principles of State Policy
Poster – Castes are Anti-national
Standees on Equality and Fraternity
Standees – Significance of We The People
Stitching Lives, Organising Workers: Collectivising Efforts in the Export Oriented Garment Industry in Bengaluru
Posters on Manual Scavenging
Posters – Dalits ownership of agricultural land in Karnataka
Posters – Myth busters regarding caste-based atrocities
Preamble in Karnataka’s languages
Brochures on Supriyo v. Union of India: One Year after the Denial of Marriage Equality to Queer Persons
A Dream Deferred – One Year After the Denial of Marriage Equality
SC ST Atrocities Act – Graphic Story Book
Resignations and Resistance Amidst State Inaction: Chronicling Garment Work During the Pandemic
Participation in Play – Demonstrating a Practicable Approach to People’s Participation in the Context of Policy Making during COVID-19
Preamble – A Brief Introduction | ‘ಸಂವಿಧಾನ ಪೀಠಿಕೆ – ಒಂದು ಪುಟ್ಟ ಮುನ್ನುಡಿ’ | उद्देशिका – संक्षिप्त परिचय
2nd Edition: Right to Love
Asserting Dignity In Times of COVID
Forced Resignations, Stealthy Closures
Laid-off during the pandemic: A case-study of the closure of a garment factory
Everyday Resistance
Garment Workers, COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown: A Report from South Karnataka
Street Vending: Pakka Legal! – A comic about the Street Vendors Act, and their right to livelihood
Sexual Harassment at Workplace
Conversations on Caste discrimination in South India
RIGHT TO LOVE: Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India- A Transformative Constitution and the Rights of LGBT Persons
Breathing Life Into The Constitution
Censor Me Not!
Dignity First: One Year of Resistance to Re-Criminalisation of LGBT Lives
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Book
Towards Gender Inclusivity
Sedition Laws & the Death of Free Speech in India
The Right That Dares To Speak Its Name
Guide to Workmen’s Compensation Act
Law Relating to Minimum Wages (English & Kannada)
Law, Legality and Power: ALF Reader
Queer: Law and Despised Sexualities in India (Book)
On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. [...] How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in
our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.
Dr. BR Ambedkar
Constitutent Assembly Debates
Liberty of speech means that it is unassailed even when the speech hurts; liberty of the press can be said to be truly respected only when the press can comment in the severest terms upon and even misrepresent matters.
MK Gandhi
A constitution is a political document which gives legal content to a set of pre-existing rights, secured politically by people's struggles. Rights have always been acquired, never granted. Freedom was acquired by the people from the British and not granted to us by
the Indian Independence Act, 1947.
K. Balagopal
Human Rights Activist
Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Annihilation of Caste
CONTACT US
E: contact@altlawforum.org
P: +91 080 22865757
Alternative Law Forum
GET IN TOUCH:
122/4 Infantry Road, Next to Balaji Art Gallery, Bangalore, India 560001 (Nearest bus stop: Shivajinagar)
Unless explicitly stated, all the material on this website can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial India 2.5 license.