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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 -
Delhi High Court dismisses bail pleas of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and others in 2020 Riots Conspiracy Case
Division Bench rejects appeals of nine accused under UAPA; Justice Shalinder Kaur declares “All appeals are dismissed” as case remains at charge-framing stage five years after riots
Gauhati High Court questions allotment of 3000 Bighas of land to private cement company in Assam
Behind the 3,000-bigha allotment to Mahabal Cement lies a decades-old conflict over customary rights, ecological safeguards, and Sixth Schedule protections
Liberty on Hold: Delays turn the promise of justice into punishment
CJP Team -
“The right to a speedy trial, now firmly entrenched in our constitutional jurisprudence under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, is not an abstract or illusory safeguard. It is a vital facet of the right to personal liberty and cannot be whittled down merely because the case arises under a special statute.”
Caste and community creations of human beings, God is always neutral: Madras HC
If a temple is permitted to be visited by the general public, it assumes the character of a public temple, irrespective of the caste or community of the devotees, they must be permitted to offer their prayers to God, every Hindu irrespective of the caste or sect to which he belongs to, shall be entitled to enter any Hindu temple and offer worship therein – Madras High Court
Supreme Court rejects gag order plea in Dharmasthala mass burial case, orders fresh Trial Court review
Terming such restraints “super injunctions” rare in a free country, the Supreme Court refused to curb media coverage of explosive allegations of decades-old murders and secret burials linked to the Dharmasthala temple, even as a Karnataka SIT probes 13 suspected burial sites
SC to ECI: Explain alleged irregularities in deletion of 65 lakh voters from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls
Supreme Court directs ECI to respond to allegations of irregularities in deleting 65 lakh voters in Bihar's draft electoral rolls; the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) states thats ECI failed to disclose identities of 65 lakh deleted voters and denied political parties access to block-level lists
Custodial Death of Dalit Law Student Somnath Suryawanshi: FIR registered after Supreme Court upholds Bombay HC directive
Eight months after the Dalit law student’s alleged custodial murder in Parbhani, Maharashtra Police books unidentified officers under BNS Section 103(1) following Supreme Court’s rejection of state’s appeal and pressure from public outrage and legal advocacy
Beed Sarpanch Murder: Special court finds prima facie evidence of organised crime syndicate, rejects Karad’s discharge plea
Special Judge cites digital, forensic, and witness evidence linking Walmik Karad to a crime syndicate behind the abduction and killing of Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh over a ₹2 crore extortion racket
Prajwal Revanna convicted of rape in first case, sentencing of August 2
A 47-year-old farm labourer had filed a complaint against Prajwal, accusing him of raping her thrice, twice at the Revanna family’s farmhouse in Gannikada in Hassan district and another time at the family house in Bengaluru. A Special Court in Bengaluru today convicted Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former MP Prajwal Revanna in the first rape case registered against him at the Holenarasipura Rural Police Station of Hassan District. Order on sentence is likely to be pronounced tomorrow.
Malegaon Acquittals: A judgement of some doubt, a trail of uneven justice
All seven accused walk free in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, but the real story is not the acquittal, rather it is how an anti-Muslim terror conspiracy unravelled in plain sight, and still evaded justice
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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
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