Tahir Mahmood – Commemorating the Author’s 50th Year of Academic Pursuits

On Friday, 12 April 2013 in New Dehli, the Vice-President of India, Janab M. Hamid Ansari, launched a new book by Professor Tahir Mahmood commemorating the author’s 50th year of academic pursuits: Religion, Law & Society across the Globe. Friends and colleagues worldwide were invited to attend the event, which was chaired by Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, Founder-President of Amity chain of Universities.

Professor Mahmood is a renowned jurist, well-known in India and abroad for his expertise in religion and the law, human rights and civil liberties, especially the law relating to the educational rights of minorities. He has been Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi; Chairman, National Commission for Minorities; Member, National Human Rights Commission; and Jurist-Member, Ranganath Misra Commission. He was from 2006 through 2010 a member of the Law Commission of India, an executive body of legal experts established by an order of the Government of India with a primary function to work for legal reform. Professor Mahmood, the first Muslim to be named to the Commission, was the only permanent member of the Eighteenth Commission.

Dr. Mahmood is a globally noted authority on Islamic Law, Legal Systems of the Arab World and Hindu Law, subjects on which he has written and edited more than two dozen books and 500 research papers. His academic work focusing on his progressive interpretation of these laws is widely acclaimed and has been cited by the Supreme Court of India and many State High Courts in more than 50 judgments besides being prescribed by many Indian and foreign Universities for higher legal studies. 

In 2010, Dr. Mahmood, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, received the Center’s Distinguished Service Award. Among his many other honors, in March 2010 Professor Mahmood received the 7th prestigious “Shah Waliullah Award” from the Institute for Objective Studies, for outstanding contribution in the field of Islamic law. The chosen field for the award was “Islamic Law in Comparative Perspective.” 

This new 520-page book, containing revised and updated texts of Professor Mahmood’s conference addresses given in various countries and short articles published in leading English dailies of India, is published by the leading law publishers of India, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.