WHY THERE HAS BEEN NO BRANDIES BRIEF IN INDIA?

CHALLENGES TO
SOCIO-LEGAL RESEARCH IN INDIA

Socio-legal research in India has seen a paradigm shift in the recent years which can be
attributed to two factors- establishment of National Law Universities all over the country and
the emergence of ICT that rapidly magnified the scale of socio-legal research in India. The
Supreme Court in India has in past relied on scientific data and reports of various experts to
arrive at logical conclusion. Nevertheless, there has been no re-enactment of Brandeis brief
on Indian judicial soil. In 1907, an American attorney Louis D. Brandeis was hired to
represent the state of Oregon in Muller v. Oregon a case before the US Supreme Court that
involved the constitutionality of limiting hours for female laundry workers. Louis D.
Brandeis took an unusual route when he prepared a brief comprising mostly of non-legal data
and restricted his legal arguments to two pages only. The brief became significant in the
coming years as it not only helped Brandeis to win the case but gave an impetus to drive the
socio-legal research in United States of America. In India the importance of socio-legal
research was first highlighted in Moti Ram & Ors v. State of M.P. by Justice Krishna Iyer
when he rued over the fact that there is a lack of socio-legal research on bail system in India.
He further stated that there is a lack of academic monitoring of legislative performance in
India. In B. Banerjee v. Anita Pan the same justice Krishna Iyer calls for an Indian version of
Brandies Brief as he stressed on Courts limitation to venture into research field on its own.
Courts have evolved since now taking inputs from experts and researchers but there are still
certain misgivings that the Court exhibits when it comes to dealing with empirical evidences
furnished by such reports. The Naz foundation case is the best illustration of such Courts
reluctance.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the relevance of socio-legal research in the context of
Supreme Court decisions. The aforementioned topic is discussed in the backdrop of Brandeis
Brief case which a landmark case was highlighting the importance of socio-legal research in
adjudication of cases particularly dealing with welfare laws. The paper follows a doctrinal
method in its approach dealing with a catena of Supreme Court cases where empirical
evidences and other non-legal data were furnished to help the Court to make an informed
decision.

The paper is divided into four chapters. The introductory part deals with brief aspect of
Brandies Brief case and its aftermath effect on other US Supreme Court cases. The second
chapter deals the importance of socio-legal research mainly pertaining to welfare laws as
highlighted by various Supreme Court cases. The third chapter explores the problems of
lackadaisical attitude that the courts have adopted in dealing with such reports. The fourth
and final chapter concludes with giving remedial suggestions for strengthening the
importance of socio-legal research in India.