2026 WINNER

Utkarsh Saxena

Adalat AI

Adalat AI uses artificial intelligence to reduce judicial delays by streamlining courtroom processes and enabling faster access to justice.

Utkarsh Saxena, co-founder & CEO, has seen the legal system from multiple vantage points. He was a law clerk on the Supreme Court of India, practiced law across courts in India, petitioned the Supreme Court for marriage equality, and worked with government and policy institutions on court reform and reducing delays and backlogs. Utkarsh holds a BA/LLB from the University of Delhi, an LLM from Harvard Law School as an Inlaks scholar, a master’s in international development economics from the Harvard Kennedy School, and is completing a PhD in public policy from the University of Oxford. Before starting his independent practice, he worked as junior counsel in the chambers of Mr. Siddharth Aggarwal, Mr. Akhil Sibal, and Mr. Gopal Subramanium. He has also worked with Dr. Arvind Subramanian in the Chief Economic Adviser’s office at the Ministry of Finance, as well as at the World Bank and the Boston Consulting Group.

In 2012, Utkarsh served as a law clerk to Justice D. K. Jain at the Supreme Court of India, contributing to a judgment that introduced guidelines to address delays in narcotics trials and reduce undertrial imprisonment, with his contribution noted in the judgment (Thana Singh v. Central Bureau of Narcotics). He later worked with the Law Commission of India on the foundational 245th Report on “Arrears and Backlog: Creating Additional Judicial (Wo)manpower, which examined judicial delay and capacity planning. In 2017, he joined the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, where he co-authored the chapter Timely Justice: The Ease of Doing Business’ Next Frontier chapter of the Economic Survey of India (2017–18). The tax-litigation reform model developed through this work was later reflected in government policy, which in turn led to a 54% reduction in cases before the Supreme Court and the release of nearly $1 billion in long-disputed claims back into the economy (The Hindu, Hindustan Times, and The Times of India).

Utkarsh has also been a petitioner and lawyer in India’s LGBTQ+ rights movement, contributing to the campaign for marriage equality before the Supreme Court of India (The Independent, Outlook India and NDTV).