New Delhi: Legal scholar Professor Gautam Bhatia has been awarded the prestigious Infosys Prize 2026 in Humanities and Social Sciences in recognition of his contributions to the study of constitutional law and his efforts to advance equality, fairness and social justice through legal scholarship. The award is for outstanding researchers aged 40 or younger.“Prof. Bhatia is an outstanding young legal scholar, prodigiously productive, tremendously wide in his range of knowledge and interests, with a real gift for marshalling arguments rigorously towards conclusions that seek to make the law an instrument for constructing a fair, equal and humane society,” the Infosys Prize announced on Thursday (October 12).Bhatia has been recognised for the weight of his legal arguments and for his extensive knowledge of political theory and moral philosophy. His work, comprising five books and numerous academic articles, has earned him considerable recognition in the field.“Thank you, it’s a great honour,” Bhatia wrote on X following the announcement, which was kept under wraps until the last moment. “Thank you, it’s a great honor and I’m obviously very surprised as the email suggested something else. Excellent deception!” – Prof. Gautam Bhatia, Infosys Prize 2026 Laureate in Humanities and Social Sciences, at the #infosysprize2026 winners’ announcement.@gautambhatia88#infosysprize #infosyssciencefoundation #infosysprize2026 #humanities #socialsciences #constitutionallaw #legalresearch #indianconstitution #lawandsociety— Infosys Prize (@InfosysPrize) November 12, 2026The Infosys Prize is awarded by the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF), an independent, not-for-profit trust established in 2009 by Infosys and members of its board.“No other legal scholar in the Indian academy today has worked with such ceaseless passion and such energy and brilliance to criticise and improve upon the frameworks that define and frame the law in our country today,” said the announcement.Among his notable publications is Offend, Shock Or Disturb: Free Speech Under the Indian Constitution, which examines the tensions surrounding freedom of expression under Indian constitutional law. His second book, The Transformative Constitution: A Radical Biography in Nine Acts, explores the constitution’s role in balancing limits on state power with the objective of transforming Indian society.His work Horizontal Rights: An Institutional Approach examines how private actors, alongside the state, can affect constitutional values and responsibilities.A graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, Bhatia subsequently studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a master’s degree from Yale University, followed by a doctorate from Oxford.He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Jindal Global Law School and a practising lawyer in New Delhi. Besides legal scholarship, he is also an accomplished novelist and science fiction writer.The Infosys Prize 2026 also recognised five other distinguished researchers for their work in other disciplines. In Mathematical Sciences, the award went to Professor Riddhipratim Basu, associate professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru. The prize recognises his contributions to probability theory and statistical physics.Professor Manoj Kumar Joshi, assistant professor of Quantum Technology at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, received the Physical Sciences award for his pioneering work with trapped ions and programmable quantum machines.In Life Sciences, Professor Isha Jain of the University of California, San Francisco, was honoured for her discoveries in oxygen biology and their potential therapeutic applications. The Engineering and Computer Science prize was awarded to Professor Swarun Kumar of Carnegie Mellon University for advancing low-power wireless networks towards sensing, control and interaction with the physical world.Meanwhile, Professor Karthik A. Sastry of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs was recognised in Economics for his pioneering contributions to climate change, technological innovation and the study of business cycle fluctuations.The 2026 awards were overseen by category-specific jury chairs, including economist Kaushik Basu for Economics, Jayathi Y. Murthy for Engineering and Computer Science, Akeel Bilgrami for Humanities and Social Sciences, Mriganka Sur for Life Sciences, Chandrashekhar Khare for Mathematical Sciences and Shrinivas Kulkarni for Physical Sciences.Each prize carries a gold medal, a citation and a purse of $1,00,000 (or its equivalent in rupees – approximately Rs 90 lakh). The prize purse is tax free in the hands of winners in India. The award recognises an invention, innovation or achievement of distinction, as well as the promise of future research and impact.