Constitutional Law

The Supreme Court of India has held that menstrual health and hygiene are components of the right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution, placing an obligation on the state to take affirmative steps to ensure that women and girls are not excluded from education, employment, or public life due to inadequate menstrual health infrastructure. The judgment addresses a long-standing gap in constitutional recognition of the specific health needs of women and girls and has wi

The Supreme Court has ruled that land earmarked for development under a duly approved and notified statutory Master Plan cannot later be classified as a 'deemed forest' merely because trees have grown on it over time. The judgment in Naveen Solanki v. Rail Land Development Authority, 2026 INSC 270, delivered on March 20, 2026 by a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih, resolves a recurring tension between environmental protection and urban development pl

The Supreme Court has set aside a High Court direction that effectively ordered the grant of an extraordinary pension, holding that courts cannot substitute their own decision in place of a discretion that the law vests in the Governor. The judgment in State of Uttarakhand v. Sarita Singh, delivered on April 9, 2026 by a bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Atul S. Chandurkar, reaffirms the settled principle that when a statute grants discretionary power to a constitutional

The Supreme Court has reinforced the doctrine of constructive res judicata by holding that a plaintiff who files a suit for bare injunction while being aware of a title dispute, and deliberately omits to seek a declaration of ownership, is barred from filing a subsequent suit for that omitted relief. The judgment in Channappa (D) Thr. LRs. v. Parvatewwa (D) Thr. LRs., 2026 INSC 343, delivered on April 10, 2026, serves as a critical reminder that all reliefs arising from a sin

The Supreme Court has ruled that independent cooperative societies, including district milk unions, do not qualify as 'State' within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution and that their internal election processes are not amenable to writ jurisdiction under Article 226. The judgment in Ram Chandra Choudhary v. Roop Nagar Dugdh Utpadak Sahakari Samiti Limited, 2026 INSC 347, delivered on April 10, 2026 by a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan, settles a

In a ruling that will reshape how courts approach sentencing in multi-count criminal cases, the Supreme Court has held that when substantive prison sentences for multiple offences are directed to run concurrently, the fines imposed for those offences must also run concurrently. The judgment in Hem Raj v. State of Himachal Pradesh, 2026 INSC 332, delivered on April 8, 2026 by a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria, addresses a gap in sentencing practice tha

In M.K. Ranjitsinh v Union of India, the Supreme Court of India has, for the first time, explicitly recognised that the right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change is a fundamental right under the Constitution. A Division Bench led by the then Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud held that Articles 14 (right to equality) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) together confer upon every citizen the right against the adverse effects of climate change. This ruling

The Delhi High Court has reserved judgment in a landmark case that could define how Indian copyright law applies to generative artificial intelligence. The suit, brought by news agency Asian News International (ANI) against OpenAI, centres on whether the use of copyrighted news content to train the ChatGPT model constitutes copyright infringement under Indian law. Filed in November 2024, the case ran over dozens of hearings through March 2026 and represents India's first judi

The Supreme Court of India has constituted a nine-judge bench to hear the long-pending review of its 2018 Sabarimala judgment, with hearings commencing on April 7, 2026. The 2018 verdict by a five-judge Constitution Bench had struck down the centuries-old practice barring women aged 10 to 50 from entering the Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple in Kerala. The review bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, will examine not only the Sabarimala question but a broade

Few environmental law disputes in recent Indian history have generated as much judicial and policy debate as the Vanashakti PIL. Filed by the Mumbai-based NGO Vanashakti, this public interest litigation challenged the legality of granting environmental clearances after a project has already commenced construction or operation, a practice known as ex post facto clearance. The case has moved through multiple Supreme Court benches, producing conflicting rulings that have left de

In a landmark ruling delivered on 5 March 2026, the Supreme Court of India clarified that homebuyers cannot simultaneously pursue remedies under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, for the same cause of action. The Court held that once a party elects to proceed under RERA, it is barred from approaching consumer forums for identical grievances arising from the same set of facts. This judgment resolves a long-stan

In M/S Aarsuday Projects and Infrastructure (P) Ltd. v. Jogen Chowdhury and Others (2026 INSC 93), the Supreme Court of India set aside a Calcutta High Court order that had been passed in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) proceedings concerning land near Shantiniketan in West Bengal, the cultural landscape associated with Rabindranath Tagore. The Supreme Court held that PIL cannot be permitted to become a vehicle for selective challenges, cautioning against the misuse of this

In early 2026, the Delhi High Court delivered a significant ruling on the interplay between interim injunctive relief in patent infringement proceedings and challenges to the validity of the patent in question. The ruling addresses a question that arises frequently in pharmaceutical, technology, and manufacturing patent disputes: when a patent holder seeks an interim injunction to restrain an alleged infringer, and the alleged infringer simultaneously challenges the validity

In State of Himachal Pradesh v. Hukum Chand (2026 INSC 290), the Supreme Court of India reaffirmed the principle that a child prosecutrix's testimony in a sexual offence case does not require mandatory corroboration to sustain a conviction. Overturning an acquittal by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, the Supreme Court held that if the testimony of a child witness is credible, consistent, and inspires judicial confidence, it can form the sole basis for a conviction without req

In March 2026, the Supreme Court reaffirmed a critical principle of bail jurisprudence: an accused seeking bail is under a fiduciary duty to make full, truthful, and complete disclosure of all material facts relevant to bail eligibility. Suppression or concealment of material information including prior criminal antecedents, pending cases, or relevant behavioral history vitiates (invalidates) the grant of bail and exposes the bail order to cancellation. This doctrine, termed