Job Information

Work Experience

2-7 years

Closing Date

15/10/2026

City

New Delhi

Job Type

Full Time

About the Role

Centre for Civil Society (CCS) is seeking a Legal Research Associate/Senior Legal Research Associate to strengthen its research on school education law, regulation, governance and financing. The role will undertake rigorous legal and policy research at the intersection of education, individual choice, institutional autonomy, regulatory governance and public financing. The Associate will work across CCS's research on school regulation, State School Standards Authorities (SSSAs), Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) and education vouchers, and the Ease of Operating Schools (EoOS) framework.

A major initial assignment will be a six-month study of the legal and regulatory framework governing school education and teacher appointment, service conditions and remuneration in Maharashtra. This is primarily a legal-policy research role, rather than a litigation or general programme-management position.

Key Responsibilities

1. Maharashtra Education Law and Teacher Regulation Study

Undertake a comprehensive legal and regulatory study of school education in Maharashtra, with particular attention to the interaction between the RTE framework and state laws governing private schools and teachers.

The Associate will

- Map applicable Acts, Rules, Government Resolutions, notifications, circulars, administrative orders and judicial decisions.
- Trace the legal evolution of relevant provisions rather than examining only the law currently in force.
- Analyse the legal framework governing teacher recruitment, qualifications, appointment, approval, service conditions, remuneration, termination and related regulatory requirements.
- Distinguish regulatory treatment across government, aided, unaided, self-financed and other relevant categories of schools.
- Undertake systematic case-law research, identifying how courts have interpreted key statutory and regulatory provisions.
- Examine overlaps, inconsistencies, ambiguities and regulatory burdens arising from multiple legal instruments.
- Conduct interviews with school leaders, lawyers, education administrators, teacher representatives and other relevant stakeholders to understand the operation of law in practice.
- Develop legal matrices, timelines, regulatory maps and clause-level analyses.
- Translate findings into actionable recommendations for regulatory reform.

2. State School Standards Authority (SSSA) Support CCS's work on the design and implementation of State School Standards Authorities by:





- Mapping the statutory and regulatory basis for SSSAs across selected states.
- Examining the institutional separation of the government's policy-making, financing, service-delivery and regulatory functions.
- Comparing approaches to school recognition, standard-setting, inspection, disclosure, accreditation and accountability.
- Assessing whether regulatory frameworks enable transparent, proportionate and non-discriminatory regulation across school types.
- Developing model regulatory principles, institutional architecture and, where appropriate, draft legal/regulatory provisions.
- Supporting state-specific policy engagement on SSSA design.

3. DBT and Education Voucher Policy Research Provide legal research support to CCS's work on student-centred education financing, including:

- Analyse the constitutional, statutory and regulatory feasibility of DBT/voucher-based approaches to education financing.
- Examine the relationship between DBT models and the RTE Act, particularly Section 12(1)(c), reimbursement frameworks and applicable state rules.
- Map existing scholarship, voucher, reimbursement and beneficiary-financing mechanisms.
- Identify legal and administrative changes required to implement potential DBT pilots.
- Support the preparation of model policy frameworks, government notes, legal options papers and pilot designs.

4. Legal Audit of the Ease of Operating Schools (EoOS) Framework Serve as the legal quality-assurance resource for the EoOS Index by:

- Audit indicators and sub-indicators against their underlying statutory and regulatory sources.
- Verify Acts, Rules, notifications, Government Orders/Resolutions, circulars and other administrative instruments across states.
- Distinguish clearly between statutory requirements, regulatory requirements, administrative practices and implementation practices.
- Identify obsolete, superseded, conflicting or duplicated legal requirements.
- Maintain a citation-ready legal repository and regulatory history for EoOS and CCS's State Regulatory Profiles.
- Establish protocols for periodically updating the legal/regulatory dataset.

5. Research Outputs and Policy Translation

- Produce legal research papers, policy briefs, regulatory analyses, legal notes,



comparative matrices and government-facing policy documents.
- Convert complex legal findings into clear and accessible policy arguments without sacrificing legal accuracy.
- Conduct rapid legal research in response to emerging policy developments.
- Work with CCS's Policy Impact and Outreach teams to translate research findings into government consultations, roundtables and policy engagement.
- Represent research findings in discussions with government officials, practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders.

Reporting to Associate Director, Research & Training Programs

Qualifications & Experience

Associate:

- LL.B./B.A. LL.B./B.B.A. LL.B. or equivalent law degree from a recognised university.
- 2–4 years of relevant experience in legal research, public policy, education law, regulatory research, a think tank, research institution, law firm or government-facing policy practice.
- Demonstrated experience in statutory interpretation and case-law research.
- Strong legal research and writing skills.

Senior Associate:

- Law degree, with LL.M./Master's in Public Policy/Public Administration/Economics or a related field desirable but not mandatory.
- 4–7 years of relevant skilled experience, with evidence of independently owning substantial legal/policy research.
- Demonstrated ability to move from legal diagnosis to policy and regulatory design, rather than merely summarising legislation.
- Experience managing research projects and mentoring junior researchers/research assistants.

Essential Research Competencies The candidate should demonstrate:

- Excellent statutory interpretation and ability to analyse Acts, Rules and delegated legislation.
- Strong case-law research and understanding of precedent.
- Ability to research and interpret Government Resolutions, notifications, circulars, departmental orders and other forms of subordinate/administrative regulation. Ability to construct a legal genealogy: Act Rules amendments notifications/GRs administrative interpretation litigation- current position.
- Understanding of constitutional and administrative law relevant to education regulation.
- Competence with SCC Online/Manupatra/LexisNexis/Westlaw or equivalent legal databases.
- Ability to undertake comparative state-level legal research.
- Ability to distinguish law on the books from regulation in practice.
- Excellent written English and ability to communicate complicated legal propositions to non-lawyers.
- Comfort working with structured datasets and spreadsheets for regulatory mapping.

📌 Senior Associate/Associate, Legal Research (Delhi)
🏢 Centre for Civil Society
📍 Delhi