Constitutional Law

The Bombay High Court has set aside a tax demand of about Rs 1,524 crore raised on Tata Sons in connection with the payment it made to Japan's NTT Docomo under an international arbitral award. In its judgment of 30 April 2026 in Tata Sons Private Limited versus Union of India, the Court held that money paid as damages pursuant to an arbitral award is not a taxable supply of service under the goods and services tax framework. The decision is significant for businesses because

A question that affects thousands of law students across India is now before the Supreme Court: can a college bar a student from sitting examinations only because the student has fallen short of the minimum attendance requirement? In May 2026 the Supreme Court declined to stay a Delhi High Court ruling that had answered this question in favour of students, while making clear that it would hear the matter fully and lay down the correct legal position. The case touches the long

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