Rule of Law

By declining contempt proceedings, denying guidelines, and acquitting the accused without inquiry, the Court in Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay undoes what it spent years building

The Supreme Court’s May 27, 2026 verdict upholding the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) settles the legal question of constitutional authority but leaves many an unresolved concern on absence of due process and independent functioning by the ECI, the arbitrary abuse of process and access: questions of unreasonable and unchecked mass deletions etc.

Ruling underscores how Foreigners Tribunal cases in Assam continue to operate under a reverse burden framework that places the entire obligation of proving citizenship upon the proceedee

The SC has upheld the ECI’s power to conduct SIR expressly stating that the contested process does not violate either election law nor rules; Court however directs that cases of voter exclusion should be provided routes and methods of adjudication

This third part of a careful and exhaustive legal analysis looks at the environmental jurisprudence of the Himalayan High Courts over the last decade that reveals an unsettling paradox: the vocabulary of ecological protection has never been richer, yet the physical landscape has never been more legally vulnerable. The courts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have masterfully preserved the text of environmental law while pronouncing judgements that blunt its teeth.

Union tells Court those sent to Bangladesh will be brought back and their citizenship claims examined in India; clarifies decision is confined to the exceptional facts of the case

Court holds allegations relating to cattle transportation and offences under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act concern “law and order” at best, and do not justify preventive detention under the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act

Court says K.A. Najeeb cannot be reduced either to a “mathematical formula” mandating bail solely due to delay or to a hollow constitutional safeguard overridden entirely by Section 43D(5) of the UAPA

The judgment restores the constitutional framework laid down in KA Najeeb and cautions against treating anti-terror bail restrictions as a basis for indefinite pre-trial detention

Part II turns its attention to Western India: Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, and the long shadow of the Western Ghats where from sound coastal-zone jurisprudence, the High Court has been asked to, and has, permitted successive ‘infrastructure’ projects that have touched coasts, mangroves and the urban forest.