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The Supreme Court in 2025: Deference, technicality and the retreat from rights
From citizenship and reservation to encounter accountability, privacy, environmental protection and minority rights, the Court's most contentious judgments of 2025 reveal an increasing preference for institutional deference and procedural compliance over substantive constitutional justice
CJP Team -
“Unacceptable”, Centre withholding names approved by Collegium: Supreme Court Issues Notice to law secretary over delay in judicial appointments
A division bench of the Supreme Court has stated that appointments must follow after a second iteration by the Collegium
Embarrassing’, SC pulls up Modi govt for failing to file affidavit: Demonitisation
2,192 days later and government gives no answers; senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said it has never been an accepted practice to seek deferment of proceedings before a constitution bench
Exclusion of SC/ST/OBC from EWS is valid for keeping balance of equality: SC bench in majority
The Supreme Court in a 3:2 judgement upheld the validity of the constitutional amendment that enables upto 10% reservations for EWS in education and public employment
Arrest of Shiv Sena MP, Sanjay Rautt a ‘Witchunt’ & ‘Illegal’ says PMLA Court granting him bail in Money Laundering case
The court also rejected ED’s application to stay the order in the Patra Chawl redevelopment project; HC also refused an urgent hearing for stay
Mangaluru court dismisses 2 interim applications by Juma Masjid (Mosque) authorities
Majoriatrian supremacist groups have created a conflict around this place of worship from April 2022
Supreme Court: Education not business to earn profit, tuition fee must be affordable
SC Upholds lower court’s decision quashing seven-fold increase of tuition fee in private medical colleges
Collegium system & transparency of judicial appointments: a conundrun
Between criticisms of opaque-ness and an absence of transparency to concerns of brazen interference from an Executive that has shown no regard for Constitutional basics even niceties, the Collegium system of appointment of Judges is once again in public debate
Government v/s Supreme Court: a throwback to a tussle for judicial autonomy
Recent statements, particularly strident from India’s minister for Law and Justice, Kiran Rijiju, an Arunachal politician previously groomed under Amit Shah’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) offer a powerful throwback to similar attempts by a previously authroritarian government in the lead-up to the Emergency in the 1970s.
Karnataka HC overturns lower court’s order blocking Congress Bharat Jodo Yatra Twitter accounts
Calling the order as “punitive action”, High Court ordered for the removal of the 45 second music clip of KGF movie used by Congress
Our Constitution does not speak the language of exclusion: minority judgement holds EWS as unconstitutional
Justice Ravindra Bhat and CJI UU Lalit, in the dissenting judgement held that by excluding SC/ST/OBC from EWS reservations, the basic structure of the Constitution as well as the Equality Code is violated
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Rule of Law
The Supreme Court in 2025: Deference, technicality and the retreat from rights
From citizenship and reservation to encounter accountability, privacy, environmental protection and minority rights, the Court's most contentious judgments of 2025 reveal an increasing preference for institutional deference and procedural compliance over substantive constitutional justice
Rights
Who owns Mumbai’s streets? The Bombay High Court, street vendors and a decade of regulatory failure
What began as a case about encroachments has become a searching inquiry into the State's failure to implement the Street Vendors Act, the rights of pedestrians and informal workers, and the growing role of identification and verification in urban governance
India
Defectors & Democracy: A critique of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution
The right of voters to recall representatives who defect—as seen in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh—and the requirement of intra-party democracy could form part of a broader institutional redesign. Such measures would deepen democratic values and, above all, signal a refusal by citizens to accept the corruption of their mandate. These may be among the reforms that India's Parliament and democracy most urgently need
Gender and Sexuality
A regressive 2026 amendment to rights of Trans persons is under legal challenge even as pride month is celebrated
Unable to stay the statute, High Courts have charted a middle path—protecting petitioners already undergoing hormone therapy while the broader constitutional challenge awaits adjudication by the Supreme Court
India
The what’s & why’s of Data Centres and how are they hijacking the India Story
While countries such as Singapore and Sweden are curbing the environmental costs of data centres through regulation and innovation, India is actively courting these resource-intensive facilities with little regard for their water and energy demands. From Stockholm's waste-heat recovery systems to zero-water cooling technologies, solutions exist. Yet India continues to trade away land, water and public resources with scant consideration for environmental sustainability or local communities.
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Telegram before NEET: When governance fails, censorship takes its place
Invoking exam security to suspend access to a platform used by millions raises serious questions about proportionality, transparency and the growing tendency to restrict communications whenever governance challenges arise
India
Yes, Savarkar did file 10 Mercy Petitions before the British, revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh refused to Compromise: Grandnephew tells Pune Court
Savarkar’s grandnephew who had lodged a criminal defamation case against LOP Rahul Gandhi, stated and admitted during his testimony that while there were other freedom fighters who refused to file clemency petitions before the British, his uncle Vinayak Savarkar had filed as many as ten!