Email: sabrangind@gmail.com
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 -
The Judicial Ouroboros: The Vanashakti Reversal & Crisis of Environmental Finality in India
Much comment was made about the obvious conflicts between two verdicts of the Supreme Court of India –the Vanshakti judgements—between May and November 2025 and as India lives with the consequences, it is essential to situate the dispute within the broader evolution of environmental constitutionalism in India.
CJM who ordered FIR against police for 2024 Sambhal violence case transferred by Allahabad HC, new trend?
CJM Vibhanshu Sudheer was among 14 judicial officers transferred by the Allahabad HC. He had ordered an FIR against then Circle Officer Anuj Chaudhary and SHO in connection with the shooting of a youth during the violence. Drawing widespread criticism from lawyers and students, this move has been compared to similar recent transfers that point unfavourably to lasting judicial independence
Supreme Court brokers interim peace at bhoj shala, allows basant panchami pujas and Friday namaz under strict safeguards
Directing separate enclosures, regulated access, and administrative oversight, the top court appeals for mutual respect while keeping the core dispute over the Dhar complex’s religious character open before the Madhya Pradesh High Court
Bombay HC: Notice to Maharashtra state, police on UK doctor, Sangram Patil’s petition seeking quashing of LOC & FIR
The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notice to the state government and other respondents seeking their response to a plea by UK doctor and YouTuber Sangram Patil; Patil a doctor of repute, and a Maharashtrian expat was detained on his arrival at Mumbai airport on January 10 and later prevented from leaving for the UK on Jan 19
Removed Without Process: The Doyjan Bibi case and the Gauhati High Court’s Retreat from demanding deportation records
CJP Team -
In refusing to question the absence of any deportation or handover records after a woman vanished from a holding centre and was reportedly transferred to the BSF, the Gauhati High Court has signalled a dangerous judicial tolerance for undocumented removals carried out in the name of sovereign authority
Manipur gang-rape survivor dies without justice, three years after 2023 ethnic violence
Abducted, brutally assaulted and gang-raped during the Meitei–Kuki conflict, the young Kuki woman succumbed to trauma-linked illness as her case languished without arrests, exposing systemic failure in prosecuting sexual violence in Manipur
When Speech Becomes an Act of Terrorism
Terms like “freedom of speech,” “freedom of expression,” “Article...
After Five Years in Jail, Bail Still Barred for Two: Supreme Court denies bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in Delhi riots case
Holding that the UAPA’s elevated statutory threshold continues to apply, the Court says Khalid and Imam stand on a “qualitatively different footing”, while granting conditional bail to five co-accused after more than five years of incarceration
Acid Attacks: The judicial struggle to regulate acid violence in India
CJP Team -
From the landmark mandate of Laxmi v. Union of India to the BNS, a critical examination of why progressive legal doctrine continues to falter against the wall of administrative inertia and systemic trial delays
When the Rule of the Bulldozer Outpaces the Rule of Law: One year after this landmark judgment
CJP Team -
In November 2024, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that no home can be destroyed without notice, hearing, and legal process. Yet across various states, the past year has shown how that standard is often treated as optional
Trending
Related VIDEOS
ALL STORIES
ALL STORIES
Culture
Delhi: Between Protection & Prayer: Stories of revered sites now under the protection of ASI
In Delhi, some monuments are not just remnants of the past. They continue to function as places of prayer, remain part of neighbourhood life, and exist within an ongoing struggle over who owns them, who maintains them, and who decides how they may be used. The authors examine the layered complexities involved
Dalit Bahujan Adivasi
Three decades after the PoA Act, justice remains elusive
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
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.