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

SC directs Aadhaar cards be issued to sex workers without insisting on the residential proof

Court asks UIDAI to maintain the confidentiality of sex workers’ data in the Aadhaar card issuance process

Bhima Koregaon: Accused Sagar Gorkhe goes on hunger strike against jail authorities

Accused alleges harassment by jail authorities and denial of basic facilities, Co-accused Gautam Navlakha seeks special court’s permission to use a mosquito net

Sanitary napkin distribution stopped in Delhi gov’t schools, HC expresses disappointment

Court holds that cancellation of tender is not sufficient reason to discontinue the facility; issues notice to Delhi government

Assam: UAPA charges filed against family of fisherman who was killed in police custody

The fisherman’s wife and daughter now face charges for allegedly burning down the police station

Kerala court convicts husband in Vismaya Dowry death case

The death of Vismaya had triggered a strong protest in Kerala against dowry and domestic violence

Bengaluru Police raid, tear down homes of Bengali Muslim migrants

Demanding proof of nationality, police destroy Muslim migrant property but not that of Hindu migrants

Gyanvapi case: Varanasi district court to hear application on maintainability of suit on May 26

Court gives both parties seven days to file objections to the Commission report on the video survey

AMSU’s Mrinal Shome released, but another leader detained

Police have offered no explanation for either detainment

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A comprehensive 30-year review of the SC/ST Atrocities Act reveals a persistent gap between the law's transformative promise and the lived realities of Dalits and Adivasis confronting violence, discrimination, and impunity

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

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

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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

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