2nd Kautilya Society NLUO Essay Writing Competition 2026 By NLU Odisha: Register By Sept 13

The Kautilya Society NLUO is one of such initiatives of NLUO which aims at promoting study, research, and informed deliberation in the field of public policy, with an application-oriented and information-dissemination purpose.

ABOUT KAUTILYA SOCIETY NLUO

Kautilya Societies are student initiatives in universities across the country set up by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy (“Vidhi”) with the aim to widen access to legislative drafting and analysis, and to empower young minds to explore public policy as a career path. The Kautilya Society, NLUO Chapter has been set up at National Law University Odisha, in association with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

The Kautilya Society initiative envisions providing opportunities to their students for successful careers in public policy and other related fields such as development, advocacy, consultancy, campaigning, financial analysis, economics and research. The vision of the society is to provide awareness and opportunities for students to nurture their interest in public service and policy as career options with a view to becoming good citizens of India.

THEME: Open Theme

Introduction

The Kautilya Society is pleased to announce the 2nd Kautilya Society NLUO Essay Writing Competition 2026, and invites students, academicians and legal professionals to showcase their analytical and writing skills. Participants are free to choose a topic of their interest from any area of law, public policy, governance, or any other subject of contemporary relevance, given that a public policy angle is explored in the essay. The competition aims to encourage intellectual curiosity, original thought, and informed discourse by providing a platform for participants to explore issues they are passionate about. Essays will be evaluated on originality, depth of analysis, coherence, research quality, and clarity of expression. Even though the essay must revolve around Indian public policy, participants may write about international events, given that a strong connection with Indian public policy is established in the submission.

Suggestive Themes

The Competition shall be an open-theme competition, meaning that the participants are free to choose and write on any area of law, given that a strong nexus to public policy is established in the submission. For instance, a participant may write on competition law but the essay must focus on related public policy. For eg., public policy implications of hub-and-spoke arrangements in cab-hailing services.

Moreover, participants are also allowed to provides submissions on international policy-oriented events but Indian public policy must be at the center of the submission's discussion.

Eligibility

• Students pursuing Five-Year/Three-Year LLB Discipline

• Students pursuing One-Year/Two-Year LLM Discipline

• Students who are not pursuing law but are interested in the subject-area are also allowed to participate.

Submission Guidelines

● Submissions shall be made in .doc/.docx format (Word 2007 or 2010 or 2013).

● The google form that will be used for submission will ask for the following:

1. Name

2. Email

3. Contact Number(s)

● The name of the file or the file in no place shall indicate the identity of the author(s). (For instance, write your submission's title as the filename. Example: the arbitrability of tenancy matters.docx to maintain confidentiality).

● Manuscript word limit: 1500-2000 (excluding endnotes)

● Hyperlinking shall be preferred mode of referencing. If hyperlinking is not possible, then end-noting may be resorted to.

● Font: Times New Roman. Font size: 12. Line spacing: 1.5. All text should be justified.

● Each manuscript must contain an Abstract of 50-100 words (not inclusive within the total word count)

● The competition shall follow a strict plagiarism and AI policy. All articles must have a similarity index of less than 10% and 0% AI. Articles with false positives shall be duly read to ensure whether the piece is originally written or it has been written by an AI model.

● Your essay should be error-free; grammar, spelling, punctuation etc.

● It is recommended that the authors visit the Vidhi website to get a better understanding on the type of submissions that the Editorial Board looks forward to receiving.

Please Note:

Manuscripts not in conformity with these guidelines may be rejected at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board reserves the right to send the manuscripts back to the authors for any modification(s) at any stage, in the event of non-conformity with any of the submission guidelines. The Editorial Board may, in its absolute discretion, waive any of the above rules or amend the process. In case of any dispute or ambiguity, the decision of the Editorial Board shall be final and binding.

Process of Evaluation

A. First Stage: This stage shall entail a preliminary check of the article, whether it follows the prescribed formatting guidelines such as being within the word count, not breaching the plagiarism limit, is not AI-written, etc. This stage is to clerically check the article for the basics.

2. Second Stage: This stage shall entail the editors to read through the articles, to assess whether the ideas are novel and original, to assess structure of the article and whether proper citations have been provided along with a grammar check. This stage shall also decide which articles are being considered for the prizes and would be forwarded to the external board of editors.
3. Third Stage (or the External Panel): This shall be the final stage, where selected articles from the second stage will be forwarded to an External Panel of 3-4 members, which, on request from the Society, may be formed within Vidhi itself, to check and decide the articles which shall be selected for publication on the Website as well as the ones that will be decided as the Winners. A check-sheet shall be duly circulated to the panel as reference to be followed so that uniformity is followed in the final stage.

Manuscripts which are not rejected at the Technical Review stage shall undergo Content Review. The Content Review is conducted in two stages wherein the manuscripts which are fit for publication as is, or do not require significant changes are shortlisted for Peer Review. The manuscripts are evaluated in Content Review on the following five parameters:

1. Grammar and Language

The language of the manuscript must be crisp and concise. A direct statement or argument would be preferred over an indirect one and minimum usage of passive voice is recommended. Author(s) must be familiar with the usage of a term used in the manuscript. The author(s) may be marked down for unnecessary repetition, long- winded sentences and irrelevant rhetoric.

2. Structure and Logical Coherence

The manuscript must be logically sound and appropriate for the objective it seeks to achieve. Author(s) may be marked down for arguments based on incorrect premises or presumptions, the lack of a clear structure or the lack of a proper logical flow.

3. Contribution to Existing Literature

If the topic of the manuscript is one which has been written about extensively in the past, the author(s) must consider what the contribution of the manuscript to the discussion is. Merely quoting and/or summarizing precedents would be inadequate. On the other hand, writing in a more innovative manner and providing a novel explanation/interpretation of a concept would be appreciated.

4. Contemporary Relevance

Manuscripts are expected to include recent developments on the topic. A manuscript is considered to possess contemporary relevance when it deals with trending societal issues and legal issues that have not been given the attention they deserve. The topic may also be one that has faded from public memory but has reemerged for some reason. The relevance of the particular topic should be highlighted by the author(s) in the introduction.

5. Referencing and Research

The manuscript must reflect substantial and not just superficial research. The author needs to be aware of what citation is required in the circumstances, when to cite (and when not to cite) and the relevance of that citation.

FEES

REGISTRATION PROCESS

• All participants are requested to pay the registration fee in the following way:
• Visit https://eazypay.icicibank.com
• Enter Institution Name as 'National Law University' and click on 'Go'
• Fill the details.

- Email id

- Mobile No.

- Amount

- Student Name (Enter your name)

- Roll or Enrolment No. (Enter your Roll / Enrolment number for NLUO students and enter 131 for others)

- Semester (Enter your Semester number for NLUO students and enter 11 for others)

- Year

- Payment Date

- Purpose (Mention KS Essay Writing Competition)

• Once required data is filled in click on 'Submit' after enter the captcha and OTP.
• After the payment you will get the auto generated payment receipt.

· Team codes along with the submission link will be allotted after registration.

· Registration to be done via this form by the 13th of September, 2026.

1. Winners: 6,000/-

2. Runners-up: 4,000/-

3. Second Runners-up: 2,500/-

Winners will receive an internship opportunity at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The top submissions will also be published on the Vidhi Blog subject to approval by External Panel.

For any queries you can mail the Society at ksociety@nluo.ac.in

Further, you can contact the persons below:

Convenor: Aryan Chowdhury (+91 8318262740)

Co-Convenor: Nidhi Rai (+91 9560392741)

Editor-in-Chief: Adrija Dey (+91 9109910526)

Click here for Brochure