Apar Gupta is a lawyer and writer on democracy and technology from India. In 2019 he was elected as an Ashoka Fellow for, "creating a model for digital rights advocacy in the country that is driven by the public, for the public."

Education

Gupta was born and raised in New Delhi, India. He attended

Mount St Mary's School Mount St. Mary's School is a Patrician Brothers' School run by the Brothers of St Patrick. It is located in Delhi Cantt, Delhi, India, at 75, Parade Road. The school was established in 1963. The current principal is Bro. Tomy Varghese Histor ...

, obtained his B.A. (LLB) (Hons) degree from Amity Law School, and a postgraduate degree from the Columbia University School of Law.

Law Practice

Gupta started out as a commercial litigator in the law firm of Karanjawala & Co., later merged his own firm Accendo Law Partners with Advani & Co. in 2010. He was included in the

Forbes India ''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'' which is managed by Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18. History and profile Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies and ma ...

30 under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

list in 2014. Gupta resigned in 2015 to start his own law chamber where he was a lawyer in notable civil liberties and constitutional cases that have digital or technology issues including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (Section 66A), Subramanium Swamy v. Union of India (

criminal defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

), Gaurav Sureshbhai Vyas v. State of Gujarat (Internet Shutdowns), Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India ( Right to Privacy and Aadhaar), PUCL v. Union of India (

Surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

Reforms), and Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (Internet Shutdowns). He has represented the India Chapter of Friday's for Future when their website was blocked under terrorism charges.

Digital Rights Advocacy

He is a co-founder of the SaveTheInternet.in campaign on net neutrality and SaveOurPrivacy.in campaign for data protection and surveillance reforms. After his work on the Section 66A case, he co-authored a study to document compliance with the judgement to discover ongoing cases which continued unconstitutionally against the Supreme Court judgement. This was called, "shocking" by the Supreme Court. Gupta is the co-founder of the

Internet Freedom Foundation Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) is an Indian non-governmental organisation that conducts advocacy on digital rights and liberties, based in New Delhi. IFF files petitions and undertakes advocacy campaigns to defend online freedom, privacy, ne ...

(IFF) and was appointed its first executive director in 2018. For his work at IFF he has been awarded the

Ashoka Fellowship Ashoka (formerly branded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) is an American-based nonprofit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by connecting and supporting individual social entrepreneurs. Their stated mission is "the creation of a ...

in 2019 and is a Next Now Fellow. Gupta has filed a case as a petitioner against the Ministry of Home Affairs for disclosure of statistical data on surveillance in India. He has deposed before a parliamentary committee on the DNA Bill and before a commission inquiring into the use of

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

Writing

Gupta authored the Commentary on the Information Technology Act which is published by LexisNexis. He writes regularly on digital and democratic rights in leading newspapers and is quoted as an expert in India. Gupta is published in reviewed journals like the

Indian Journal of Law and Technology The ''Indian Journal of Law and Technology'' is an annual peer-reviewed, student-edited, open access law journal published by India's premier law school, the National Law School of India University (Bangalore, India). The journal was establis ...

, Seminar and the India International Center Quarterly.

Awards and recognition

* Forbes India : 30 under 30 (2014) * Ashoka Fellowship (2019) * Agami Shamnad Basheer Citizenship Prize : Special Mention (2020) * ROW 100 : Global Tech's Changemakers (2022)

References