Law & Justice

SC: Article 142, Mass Amnesties, and the Panchayatisation of the Rule of Law

Within a month of youth-led protests in Delhi and at least half a dozen other locations, the Supreme Court’s September 1 Order invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to quash criminal cases registered across at least five states. This examines the limitations of this ad hoc jurisprudence, arguing that while protection from abusive state prosecution is welcome, linking it to the cancellation of the September 5 march sets a troubling precedent. Constitutional scrutiny demanded a rigorous examination of alleged executive and police overreach, including blanket prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS and the shutdown of metro stations and internet services. Instead, the alleged excesses of Delhi and other police forces remain unadjudicated.

Allahabad HC: Quashes FIR under draconian UP ‘Anti-Conversion Act’, warns state authorities against lodging ‘Mimeographic Style’ FIRs

Apart from quashing the FIR lodged in April 2025 that was patently motivated, the Division Bench held the State to account by asserting its constitutional role and requiring the Principal Secretary (Home) to file a personal affidavit explaining the conduct of the Pratapgarh police

Interim bail to Gujarat journalist Mahesh Langa: SC

Langa has been in Sabarmati jail for over 14 months

When Morality Meets Surveillance: The court’s push toward state-regulated digital content

As the Supreme Court pushes the Union to regulate online obscenity and now suggests Aadhaar-based age verification, India stands at the edge of a new regime where the State decides what citizens may see, say, or seek

Allahabad HC slams overzealous police action, says distributing Bibles or preaching Christianity is not an offence under UP conversion law

Bench flags suspicious FIR, delayed ‘victim’ statements, and questions complainant’s conduct in alleged conversion case

Gujarat High Court calls out “routine emergency”, strikes down years of Section 144 orders, demands transparency in all future restrictions

In its ruling, the Court holds that Ahmedabad Police normalised extraordinary powers, suppressed peaceful dissent, and failed to inform the public — directing that all future prohibitory orders must be published across social media and modern communication platforms

Bombay HC bail for Hany Babu signals a critical reassessment of the Bhima Koregaon Case

After nearly five years of incarceration under the UAPA, the High Court’s decision marks a pivotal shift in a prosecution dogged by forensic uncertainty, procedural delay and mounting constitutional concerns

Supreme Court restores Article 21 safeguards, calls 24-month UAPA custody without charge sheet illegal; sets aside Gauhati HC’s reliance on Sec 43D(7)

Bench rules that default bail is an indefeasible right and cannot be denied on grounds of nationality or alleged illegal entry

SC secures return of pregnant woman and child deported to Bangladesh, says ‘law must bend to humanity’

Union concedes to humanitarian repatriation; Supreme Court questions due process, sets next hearing on status of four remaining deportees

From Suspected Foreigner to Recognised Citizen: Aklima’s fight for dignity and Indian citizenship

Widowed, landless, and displaced, Aklima Sarkar fought three years to reclaim her citizenship in Assam

Punjab & Haryana High Court refuses anticipatory bail to journalist accused of provocative, communal statements against Purvanchal community

Justice Sumeet Goel cites prima facie digital evidence, seriousness of hate-motivated speech, and the need for custodial interrogation

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SC: Article 142, Mass Amnesties, and the Panchayatisation of the Rule of Law

Within a month of youth-led protests in Delhi and at least half a dozen other locations, the Supreme Court’s September 1 Order invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to quash criminal cases registered across at least five states. This examines the limitations of this ad hoc jurisprudence, arguing that while protection from abusive state prosecution is welcome, linking it to the cancellation of the September 5 march sets a troubling precedent. Constitutional scrutiny demanded a rigorous examination of alleged executive and police overreach, including blanket prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS and the shutdown of metro stations and internet services. Instead, the alleged excesses of Delhi and other police forces remain unadjudicated.

Need for Clarity on the SIR: An Open Letter to the Congress Leaders of Karnataka

While the national leadership of the party, leads and articulates the national campaign for the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, the state leadership of Karnataka, a state governed by the party, gives conflicting statements almost endorsing a process that has disenfranchised close to 10 million there

From Arunachal to Delhi, anti-dam protesters face state crackdown; detained allege sexual assault

Around 40 protesters from Arunachal Pradesh were detained during a solidarity demonstration, as the crackdown on indigenous resistance to the proposed mega dam intensifies

Beyond Appropriation: Vidya Bhushan Rawat’s recovery of Bose’s inclusive nationalism

Rawat’s book emerges from a unique perspective that argues –among other things – that Bose and Nehru must be understood through their competing strategies, and historical circumstances— not recruited retrospectively into opposing political camps; neither does the book place Bose beyond criticism, affirming however his intrinsic secular outlook while stressing on diverse networks that helped sustain the struggle for independence’ not a biography of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose but a chronicle of Indian National Army as well as India’s freedom Movement.

After 22 years under suspicion, Assam’s Kashem Ali declared Indian by Foreigners Tribunal

With 18 years passing between the registration of the case and service of notice, and nearly a year spent fighting to prove his citizenship, Kashem Ali finally wins legal relief with CJP’s assistance

From treating Adivasi communities to being branded an instigator: Odisha jails doctor Randall Sequeira

Arrested in a case in which his name did not figure in the original FIR, Dr Randall Sequeira faces serious criminal charges amid an intensifying crackdown on Adivasi communities resisting bauxite mining in Odisha