The Standard Indian Legal Citation (SILC) standard has been recognised by Harvard Law School as one of six citation standards and the only citation manual from Asia.

The style which had been accepted by around 32 law schools in 2014 shortly after its launch, as reported by Legally India at the time, has seen an adoption and been downloaded by more than 100 colleges.

The system was conceived by Nalsar Hyderabad 2013 graduate Rohit Pothukuchi (chief editor), Supreme Court advocate and former executive editor of the Journal of Indian Law and Society Shambo Nandy, and Journal of Telecommunication and Broadcasting Law executive editor Debanshu Khettry with a team of editors and advisory members.

In a press release, Professor David B Wilkins, Harvard Law School’s vice dean for global initiatives on the legal profession and faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession, said: “In 1926, Erwin Griswold and his student colleagues at the Harvard Law Review published the first edition of “A Uniform System of Citation,” today commonly referred to as “The Blue Book.”

“Just as Erwin Griswold would go on to reshape the legal world as Dean of Harvard Law School and Solicitor General of the United States, the Blue Book has reshaped the world of legal citations by bringing much needed uniformity to the field, allowing lawyers, judges, and academics to more efficiently do their work.

“Now Rohit Pothukuchi and his colleagues are attempting to accomplish this same goal for India through the Standard Indian Legal Citation. I have no doubt that future generations of lawyers, judges, and academics in your great country will look back on Mr. Pothukuchi’s work with the same admiration and respect as lawyers in the United States have for Dean Griswold and the uniform approach to legal citations that his Blue Book, now in its 19th edition, continues to provide in mine.”