OP here. Let me answer the 'what did he do for debating?' query. I attended one of the other colleges in Bangalore and was a regular participant in the NLS Debate during my student days. I remember Sid.C being the Tournament Director in 2005 and being part of the adjudication core in 2006 and 2007. He personally convinced people from many Indian colleges to start their foray into parliamentary-style debating around that time. Alumni from NUJS, NALSAR, Christ Law, IIT Bombay and several DU colleges have told me that he helped in developing the activity at their institutions, either by judging internal selections or helping them in organising the early editions of their tournaments. I last met him in 2012 when he had just started teaching at NLSIU and was very much helping the students interested in this activity. I lost touch with him after he moved to NALSAR and just recently found out that he is back at NLSIU. Good to know that some current students have positive things to say about him.

Yes. I was in the same batch. He has made the course plan publicly available on academia.edu. I am copying the link below for the benefit of students at other law schools:

https://www.academia.edu/126119436/Comparative_Public_Law_And_Governance_November_2024_January_2025_NLSIU_Bengaluru

He has uploaded most of his course plans from NALSAR on his academia.edu profile. Here are links for some of them:

Constitutional Law I (Fundamental Rights): https://www.academia.edu/96331395/CONSTITUTIONAL_LAW_I_Syllabus_June_October_2022_NALSAR_Hyderabad

Constitutional Law II (Structures of Governance):

https://www.academia.edu/96331746/CONSTITUTIONAL_LAW_II_Syllabus_January_April_2023_NALSAR_Hyderabad

Political Obligations (Elective):

https://www.academia.edu/96332831/POLITICAL_OBLIGATIONS_January_April_2018_NALSAR_Hyderabad

Judicial Process and Statutory Interpretation (Elective):

https://www.academia.edu/96332992/JUDICIAL_PROCESS_AND_STATUTORY_INTERPRETATION_July_October_2018_NALSAR_Hyderabad

Interdisciplinary Studies On The Indian Legal System (Seminar):

https://www.academia.edu/96337810/INTERDISCIPLINARY_STUDIES_ON_THE_INDIAN_LEGAL_SYSTEM_January_April_2018_NALSAR_Hyderabad

I could not find such uploads from other faculty members at NLSIU, NALSAR and NLU Delhi. I wish that more faculty members from these better known institutions had made their course plans publicly available.

I sat for his final viva voce which happened recently. He may have taken a long time to complete his thesis, but judging by the quality of the discussions and the comments by the external examiners, it seems to be a worthwhile effort. The external examiners were among the best names in the country drawn from the fields of political science, sociology and constitutional law. All of them were quite positive that the thesis should be promptly converted into a book. Sid.C, being the selfless fellow that he is, has already shared the full text on his SSRN, Academia and ResearchGate profiles. In the middle of the viva, he actually said that the point of writing the thesis was to benefit practitioners and students. It seems that he is not worried at all about his publication prospects and citation counts. He said that his purpose would be served if his writing feeds into the teaching of courses on Indian Constitutional Law. I must say that it was the first time that I was hearing him in person, and I have not seen anything like it at an Indian Law School. No wonder he is so highly rated by his former students.

It seems that this link has expired. Seriously, I cannot think of too many people active in academics today who will freely share their thesis for public consumption. Here is the link from SSRN which he had shared on LinkedIn a few days ago:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6163966

I am a student, based in England, studying human rights law and jurisprudence. Am currently in a hospital emergency department waiting room, waiting for a friend who needed a knee seeing to. Opened this site for fun to take away the monotony and thought all I would get from this would be some next-level shitposting. Opened the link to the 'Political Obligations' course plan. It filled me with such happiness that I let out a heartfelt sort of groan of envy and pure joy. The readings are literally so awesome and that too, this was being taught by somebody who is, by all accounts, a fab teacher. The sound I made was such, though, that a medical orderly looked around to see if I was ill. How to explain that I have just been reading something which makes me wanna dance in the streets.