Justice Demands an Interdisciplinary Mind

In mental health care, several practices remain deeply unjust to those who are suffering. Chaining, once justified by the belief that some “cannot be controlled,” is now banned under law. Yet, despite legal safeguards and the efforts of several NGOs, much remains to be done. Many individuals with mental illness still face social and legal barriers, often denied property rights or guardianship on the grounds of being “not of sound mind.”  Yet mental health conditions can be treated, and this is precisely where psychology is located.

This example captures what Ahmedabad University's School of Arts and Sciences Professor Shilpa Pandit calls the complexity and absurdity of the Indian system: lawyers study law, psychologists study psychology, and neither truly engages with the other. When they do, the dialogue is often too superficial to bring change. The result is a fractured system where mental health students remain unaware of the legal frameworks protecting their clients, and legal and administrative practitioners lack the psychological understanding to grasp the lived realities behind those laws.

"There is an urgent need to bridge this divide to build a truly humane system," says Professor Pandit. This conviction inspired her to write "Social Psychology and Law in India," a textbook that offers an interdisciplinary lens for viewing the law and its relationship with the human mind.

Professor Pandit's idea of interdisciplinarity is compelling. Trained in music, she was intrigued by how art could immerse and heal yet simultaneously reveal human suffering. As a young scholar, she applied for a scholarship to apprentice with the legendary singer Girija Devi.

However, fate intervened. Instead of Banaras, she was sent to Dharamshala to spend a summer in a Buddhist monastery. Immersed in Buddhist philosophy, she discovered that her search for musical immersion was, at its core, a philosophical journey. That experience became her first lesson in interdisciplinarity.

Today, this same sensibility continues to shape her work. In her textbook, Professor Pandit brings together psychology, law, and social policy. Just as music once helped her understand emotion and meaning, she now uses psychology and law to explore how justice and empathy do and can coexist.

Professor Pandit explains that law and psychology share a bi-directional relationship. "The best legal minds, in India and across the world, have always engaged deeply with psychology," she notes. "That's because the legal process itself is interpretive. To give justice, you need to understand the human mind."

Law, she says, rests on two core principles. It must protect the vulnerable and deter injustice. To fulfil both, the law must interpret human behaviour, intent, and suffering, In light of the facts and evidence.

The five major legislations: the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012; the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2016; the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017; the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016; and the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (DV) Act, 2005, form the crux of the book.

Each of these laws, she argues, has a psychological foundation that is often invisible but crucial. In POCSO, for instance, psychologists are central to every stage, from preventing abuse through education, to ensuring child-friendly investigations, to enabling rehabilitation so that a child does not grow up burdened by trauma.

Why focus on these five laws? "Because interdisciplinarity can often become vague," says Professor Pandit. "I wanted students to know exactly where their professional location is. Every psychologist, whether social, clinical, or counselling, will engage with these five laws in some form."

"Law operates at a broad level. It interprets the state, the case, and time," she explains. "But psychologists work here and now, with the person, with the group. They need to know where the law helps them and where the gaps remain."

Professor Pandit, through this book, aims to build a perspective that professionalises psychology, helping practitioners and psychology students understand how psychology and law work together to create better professionals. Second, she hopes the book will nurture engaged citizens who can think critically, ethically, and engage with justice.