J. Sai Deepak Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About J. Sai Deepak

• J. Sai Deepak has always been interested in reading current affairs. He used to participate in quiz and debate competitions during his school and college days.
  

  J. Sai Deepak (sitting) in his during college days

• In February 2008, he started working as a contributor to the blog SpicyIP. He worked there for more than two years.

• In July 2009, he began working as a civil commercial litigator at a law firm named Saikrishna & Associates in New Delhi. He was made the associate partner in March 2015. After working there for seven years, he left the firm in June 2016.

• In August 2016, he was the Special Counsel for the State Government of Madhya Pradesh in the Basmati GI litigation.

• In 2016, he founded the Law Chambers of J. Sai Deepak and started practicing as an independent counsel. He has represented his clients before the Delhi High Court, the Supreme Court of India, the NCLAT, the NCLTs and the CCI.

• He has also appeared before the Madras, Telangana, Calcutta, Bombay, Karnataka, Kerala, and Himachal Pradesh High Courts for his cases.

• He is an ardent supporter of establishment of a Hindutva nation. He believes that India would only be safe and thrive if the majority of the population were Hindu.

• He is often criticised for his views against Christianity and Islam. He is also called a “Hindu Majoritarian” for advocating for a Hindutva nation. According to him, the connection the Hindu religion and India is “inseparable.”

• His representation in the case on the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple is considered one of the most notable cases in his career. He has argued against the women’s entry into the temple by stating the belief that the Hindu deity Ayyappan follows naishtika brahmacharya (lifelong celibacy).
  

  Sabarimala Temple

• He argued that the deity is a living being by claiming that according to the Hindu religion, an idol is considered living after the installation ceremony (prana pratishtha). Therefore, the deity is entitled to constitutional rights of religious liberty and freedom of religion as per Articles 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India.

• However, in 2018, the Supreme Court gave verdict against Sai Deepak’s favour by allowing women to enter the temple.

• He has also argued against the petition that allow priests of any caste to be priests at Sabarimala Temple. From the past times, only Malayali Brahmins were allowed to be the priests at the temple.

• In the Padmanabhaswamy Temple case, Deepak represented the Travancore royal family to claim their right to manage the estates of the temple. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Travancore royal family by overturning the 2011 Kerala High Court decision.

• He has been involved in a public interest litigation (PIL) against the marital rape exception in the Indian Penal Code. He argued that the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 already provides aids to victims of marital rape and any new laws on the issue should be made by Parliament, as the judiciary cannot create new laws.
• He has also argued against a PIL that seek legal recognition for same-sex marriage.

• Deepak has represented Anand Ranganathan in the contempt of court case for the remarks he made against Justice S. Muralidhar. In January 2024, the Delhi High Court closed the proceedings of the case against Ranganathan.
  

  J. Sai Deepak with Anand Ranganathan

• He has also worked as a counsel for the royal family of Kashi in a case demanding a constitutional review of the Places of Worship Act of 1991.

• He has worked as a columnist for the newspaper The Indian Express and the news website Firstpost. He has also maintained a regular column named “Indic Views” that he wrote for The Daily Guardian.

• He writes two blogs named ‘Yukti’ on which he writes about constitutional theory and legal philosophy, and another named ‘The Demanding Mistress,’ where he mainly he writes blogs related to civil, commercial, and intellectual property law.

• The Madras High Court once cited one of his articles from the blog ‘The Demanding Mistress’ in its decision on the TVS Motor Company vs. Bajaj Auto Limited intellectual property dispute.

• He has written a series of books out of which only two books have been published. In 2021, he released his book “India, that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution,” which was later included in the syllabus of the Comprehensive and Communicative Skills in English paper at the Banaras Hindu University.
  

  India, that is Bharat Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution

• His second book “India, Bharat and Pakistan: The Constitutional Journey of a Sandwiched Civilisation” was published in 2022.

• He once beat Shashi Tharoor in a debate on nationalism.

• Sai Deepak has participated in panel discussions and several other events at various Universities across India.

• Deepak is often criticized for his extremist views and called fascist.

• He has also been accused of promoting Hindu supremacy in his books. Many people were against for introducing his book into the syllabus of law schools, concerning about his academic credentials and suitability for law courses. Many critics claimed to stick to established texts that have been in use for years, especially in National Law Universities (NLUs).

• In 2020, his lecture on ‘minority rights’ got cancelled at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia due to the protest of students. Two years later, his talk event on the Karnataka hijab ban at St. Stephen’s College, was cancelled despite receiving permission. Some journalists termed it as the advent of cancel culture and deplatforming in India.

• In 2023, he received huge backlash for his article in which he discussed limitations imposed by the Indian Constitution against Hindu majoritarian expression. In his article, he had criticized the provisions for Hindu majority authority being subject to judicial review and being changed if it went opposite with constitutional morality.

• In 2024, he appeared as a guest in several podcast shows such as ‘Amazon Book Talks,’ ‘Sangam Talks,’ and ‘The Raunac Podcast.’
  

  J. Sai Deepak (left) in a still from the podcast show ‘Amazon Book Talks’

• He is a dog lover and has three pet dogs named Laya, Leela, and Laddu. He prefers to adopt Indian stray dogs instead of buying dogs.
  

  J. Sai Deepak with his pet dog Laya