Constitutional Law

On 25 May 2026 the Supreme Court of India drew attention to a long standing weakness in the civil justice system: the difficulty litigants face in actually enforcing decrees they have won. A Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Pankaj Mithal took suo motu note of the fact that the draft Commercial Courts Rules, 2021 had still not been notified, and observed that the country faces a huge challenge in the effective and expeditious disposal of execution petitions. For ord

The Kerala High Court on 25 May 2026 enhanced the punishment of twelve persons convicted in the Attappadi Madhu lynching case to life imprisonment, marking a significant moment in one of Kerala's most closely watched mob violence prosecutions. Madhu, a young Adivasi man with a mental illness, was assaulted by a group of people in February 2018 at Attappadi in Palakkad district after being accused of stealing rice and groceries from a local shop. He died shortly after the assa

The Delhi High Court has restrained an electronics retailer from screening cinematograph films on televisions in its stores without obtaining a licence from the relevant copyright society. The order, passed in a suit filed by a copyright society that administers public performance rights in films, is a useful reminder that playing films or music in a commercial space is a regulated act under the Copyright Act, 1957, and not a free incidental use simply because the business is

The Supreme Court is hearing a constitutional challenge to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, the law that removed the Chief Justice of India from the panel that selects Election Commissioners. A bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma is examining whether the 2023 Act undermines the independence of the Election Commission by leaving the appointment proce

The Supreme Court has empowered District Collectors across the country to enforce the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 by directing that statutory powers under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 be delegated to them. A bench of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti issued the directions, treating the failure of waste management as a matter requiring coercive enforcement at the district level rather than distant regulatory oversight. The order gives district ad

The Supreme Court has held that meritorious candidates with disabilities who clear a selection on their own merit are entitled to be appointed against unreserved vacancies, and not adjusted against the quota reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities. The direction, issued in proceedings linked to Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation v. Union of India, reinforces the principle of upward movement and clarifies a long-running confusion about how disability reservation inte

The Supreme Court of India has taken suo motu cognisance of the Twisha Sharma dowry death case, registering the matter on its own motion over alleged procedural lapses in the investigation into the unnatural death of a young woman at her matrimonial home. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi, is seized of the case. The intervention has drawn public attention to how dowry death is treated under In

The Supreme Court of India has reiterated the settled legal position that a will does not require registration to be legally valid and enforceable. In a recent judgment delivered in May 2026, the Court set aside a High Court order that had questioned the authenticity of an unregistered will solely on the ground that the testator had not got it registered despite having the opportunity to do so. The Supreme Court held that drawing an adverse inference from non-registration of

The Delhi High Court on 22nd May 2026 dismissed Dabur India Limited's appeal against an injunction restraining it from selling its cooling oil product Cool King Thanda Tael in packaging found to be deceptively similar to Emami Limited's well-known Navratna Ayurvedic Oil. A Division Bench comprising Justices Kameswara Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora upheld the single judge's finding that Dabur's trade dress constituted passing off and was a deliberate imitation of Emami's d

The Supreme Court of India on 22nd May 2026 issued a comprehensive set of directions to address systemic failures in tracing missing children and dismantling child trafficking networks operating across states. A bench comprising Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahadevan directed that all missing person complaints involving children must result in immediate FIR registration without any preliminary inquiry, and ordered the establishment of a nationwide integrated digital g

The Supreme Court of India in May 2026 upheld the conviction of a husband for strangulating his wife to death in the case of Chetan Dashrath Gade v. The State of Maharashtra, reaffirming the application of Section 106 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (corresponding to Section 108 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023). The Court held that once the prosecution establishes that certain incriminating facts were especially within the accused's personal knowledge, the burden sh

The Delhi High Court on May 7, 2026, issued notice to NDTV, NDTV Convergence, and Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) in a civil defamation suit filed by businessman Anil Ambani. Ambani alleged that the Adani Group-owned media entities published 72 targeted reports against him as part of a deliberate smear campaign designed to damage his reputation and business interests. The Court, while issuing notice, declined to grant immediate interim relief restraining NDTV from publishing f

The Supreme Court of India in Punjab State Power Corporation Limited v. Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (2026 INSC 515) held that a power generating station's failure to demonstrate its declared electricity generation capacity attracts strict liability and does not require proof of mens rea or deliberate wrongdoing. A bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K Vinod Chandran restored a penalty of approximately Rs 162 crore on the power generator, setting aside the Punjab State E

The Supreme Court of India delivered a landmark stray dog verdict in May 2026, ordering the immediate rounding up, sterilisation, and permanent relocation of stray dogs from key public areas such as hospitals, schools, bus stands, and railway stations. The ruling, delivered by a bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sandeep Mehta, and Justice NV Anjaria, fundamentally changes how India manages its stray dog population by prioritising human safety under Article 21 of t

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has announced her intention to challenge the West Bengal 2026 Assembly election results in the Supreme Court of India. The challenge is expected to focus on the deletion of approximately 9 million voter entries from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted before the elections. The two-phase elections held on 23 and 29 April 2026 resulted in the BJP winning the state for the first time, and the

President Draupadi Murmu has promulgated the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026, increasing the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court of India from 34 to 38 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. The Ordinance was notified in the Gazette of India on 16 May 2026 after the Union Cabinet approved the proposal on 5 May 2026. This is the most significant expansion of the Supreme Court's bench strength in recent years, aimed at addressing a backlog

The Calcutta High Court on 21 May 2026 granted interim protection to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, restraining the West Bengal Police from taking any coercive action against him until 31 July 2026 in connection with an FIR registered over his alleged remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election campaign. The Court, however, also pulled up Banerjee for making what it described as irresponsible and inflammatory speeches,

The Madras High Court on 21 May 2026 dismissed a plea seeking to ban the Tamil movie Karuppu, starring Suriya and Trisha and directed by RJ Balaji. The petitioner, advocate RS Tamilvendan of Kodambakkam, alleged that the film damaged the image of the judicial system by portraying corruption among judges and lawyers. The Bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan held that the portrayal of corruption in the legal system is a matter for introspection, not censorshi

The Madras High Court has granted an interim stay of a notice issued by the Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing directing X (formerly Twitter) to remove and block multiple URLs containing posts by Vishwa Hindu Parishad members and supporters. The Court observed that political criticism, satire, and dissent are constitutionally protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and cannot be suppressed through executive orders that lack individualised reasoning. The order is a signi

The Supreme Court of India on 20 May 2026 acquitted a Sri Lankan refugee convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, after finding that his entire prosecution rested on a case of mistaken identity. The judgment in Sri v. State (2026 INSC 516) is a sharp reminder that wrongful convictions under stringent anti-terror legislation can occur when basic procedural safeguards, such as test identification parades, are bypassed. The ruling also carries significance