Civil Justice

The ghost of a colonial law still haunts Indian theatre

Eight years after the Modi government repealed the colonial era Dramatic Performances Act, remnants of the law in Maharashtra and Gujarat continue to uphold a regime of censorship for theatre artists.

‘Staying Alive’: Celebrating 20 years of the DV Act | A Curator’s Note

Twenty years since its passing, one good news is that the DV Act is indeed being used, even as challenges remain in its implementation. This special series honours the journey of the PWDVA through the insights of its drafters, campaigners and implementers, and intends to create a living archive of the law.

Gods in the rubble: How law orchestrates the erasure of working-class religious life in neoliberal India’s cities

In June, bulldozers razed down a Kali temple in Bhoomiheen camp in Delhi. Selective application of zoning laws, nuisance doctrines, environmental norms and master plans have enabled demolition of mazārs, dargāhs and wayside shrines of working class devotees - clipping away the last remnants of citizenship entitlements for the poor across India’s cities.

Killed in Poonch shelling, Qari Iqbal was branded a terrorist. Four months on, his family continues the legal struggle to reclaim dignity

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack in May earlier this year, a Quran teacher was killed protecting children in Kashmir’s Poonch by Pakistan’s shelling. News 18, Republic TV and Zee News called him a terrorist who was eliminated. With little to lose, his family now seeks reparations.

Supreme Court affirms activist Medha Patkar’s conviction in Delhi LG Saxena’s defamation case, waives off penalty

While the top Court affirmed Patkar’s conviction, it set aside a 1 lakh rupees penalty imposed by the trial court in this case stemming from a statement made in 2000-2001.

On misuse of criminal proceedings to settle civil disputes: A critical SC verdict from last year that missed our attention

When procedural abuse becomes an institutional habit, who ultimately pays the price? The SC’s 2024 decision in Tushar Rajnikantbhai Shah gave some important answers.

Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals system lacks a secure legal foundation, is vulnerable to executive interference: NLSIU and QMUL report claims

The report, launched in Delhi’s Teen Murti last weekend, also claims that the Gauhati HC has actively entrenched the procedural biases of the exclusionary Foreigners Tribunals, which have so far declared 165,000 people “foreigners”.

If Elon and Trump were a gay couple in India, they’d be screwed (legally speaking, of course)

Trojan horse for a very real legal commentary on the absence of queer relationship protections in India

On uncertain freedom of speech and enforced silences

At times the understanding of the state institutions seems to be that the Constitution of India protects ‘right to be offended’ as a fundamental right and the freedom of speech and expression is subordinate to it.

In the Andhra Pradesh HC’s recent decision on transgender women’s rights in marriage, a reaffirmation of their legal identity as women

In its decision of June 16, the Andhra Pradesh HC has reaffirmed that trans women are to be treated as women under Indian criminal law. Beyond marriage, the judgement concretises a long-fought battle for dignity.

What does the Indian Constitution truly ask of its citizens when it speaks of scientific temper?

Scientific temper, as enshrined in Article 51A(h), is often reduced to a footnote. But what if it were central? What if the story of constitutional democracy in India is also a story about how we argue, question, doubt, and dare to know?

The Chinnaswamy stadium stampede pushes us to rethink crowd safety and legal preparedness in India

Beyond ongoing criminal proceedings, and the BCCI’s call for a committee to prevent future disasters, what we need is a national policy framework to regulate the organisation of mass public events, including through mandatory event-safety licensing.

How provincial and princely politics around language and sovereignty shaped Indian Constitution’s making: A multi-part series

In the halls of the Constituent Assembly, language was a hotly debated issue, shaping several discussions all the way down to how States were named. In the first of this multi-part constitutional history series, we explore a brief history of provinces in newly independent India, their competing visions of nationhood, and what our legal imagination of language in today’s majoritarian India must borrow from this history.

In the three-year mandatory practice debate, clinical legal education offers a third way

On June 16, a review petition against the SC’s three-year practice judgement raised the concern of marginalised communities’ access to the judiciary. But the SC’s reasoning that there is no effective justice without practical exposure holds weight too, and a new model of legal education may show light.

Our subordinate court judges need case administrators, not court managers

The release of a convict by the Allahabad HC last month after 48 years of entangled criminal proceedings represented a broader crisis - the inherent complexity of judicial proceedings in India, and the difficulty of any one actor, including our subordinate court judges, in dictating the time and pace of cases. Would introducing case administrators in our courts, similar to Canada, the US and UK, which would free up the workload of subordinate court judges, be the saving grace?

The idea of a university: A response to Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Can a university not be a space to debate and critique the hounding political issues of our time - including how court decisions and the law are framed - what Upendra Baxi terms ‘demosprudence’? How would social movements inform judicial decisions unless they are discussed beyond the four walls of the superior courts and the black letter of the law?

To deliver justice well, we need judges who have lived it too: In defence of the SC’s 3 year practice mandate for judicial exams

Judges with prior litigation and trial experience are often better at managing case dockets, adjournments and empathising with the granular struggles of underprivileged litigants. But the decision’s exclusionary impact on women and marginalised communities highlights that systemic reform is a project far from complete.

A Bombay High Court verdict keeps intact Maharashtra’s constitutionally flawed property tax regime

Precedents indicate that the ‘pre-deposit’ condition precedent to appeal property tax assessments in Maharashtra violates Article 14 of the Constitution. Yet the Bombay HC’s 2014 verdict in Walchandnagar Industries keeps matters ambiguous, diverging from broader established jurisprudence.

Finality as intended: A defence of Justice Viswanathan’s dissent in Gayatri Balasamy

Justice K.V. Viswanathan, in his illustrative dissent, has laid down that the Court has no power to modify an award. In the absence of legislative intervention, the majority opinion in Gayatri Balasamy, with due respect, warrants reconsideration.

Will India really shift to a 4-day work week? Under the new labour regime, it seems untenable.

The contention of a 4-day workweek emerges on the premise that daily working hours would be 12 hours and total working period in 4 days would be, in that case, 48 hours. However, setting a daily 12-hour work day is not legally feasible under the Code on Wages.

Challenge to the Waqf amendment: As SC sets in for substantive hearings, a break-down of Petitioner’s consolidated written submissions and contentious issues

Even as the Union’s affidavit and rejoinders were filed by May 4, outgoing CJI Khanna deferred the hearings to CJI Gavai’s tenure. Today, at last, the petitions, including interventions challenging and supporting the Waqf amendment will be heard substantively.

Deferred dreams: Bureaucratic lethargy in CLAT and judicial service exams unravels the dim future of the legal profession in India

In April, a Supreme Court bench chastised the CLAT consortium for the “casual manner” in which it framed questions in CLAT 2025, putting at risk lakhs of careers. Meanwhile across Indian states, judicial service exams have remained on hold. Stuck between lethargy and institutional incompetence, the emergence of a generation of unemployed law graduates shows mirror to the crisis confronting the legal profession.

Jai Bhim Nagar demolitions and the doctrine of unconstitutional state of affairs

The doctrine of unconstitutional state of affairs, originated in Colombia, pushes to examine constitutional violations at a more structural, rather than individual level. Could invoking the principle be the most effective answer to the systemic and collusive injustice in the Jaim Bhim Nagar demolitions case?

When the guardian falters: What the NHRC downgrade means for the Indian masses

The downgrading of NHRC captured perfectly the many qualms civil society has had with how the institution has been run for several years. It is also a reflection that concerted, organised efforts by civil society actors on the international stage can be productive in holding our institutions accountable, especially the ones meant to rein in state excesses.

Beer Biceps, Chhattisgarh HC’s marital rape decision and the making of a crime in Hindu majoritarian India

The string of State actions against social media influencer Ranveer Allahabadia for a joke on an online show, and a recent decision by the Chhattisgarh High Court acquitting a person accused of committing marital rape have something in common. As liberal democratic principles erode systematically, how the State responds to offences will be shaped by the society’s majoritarian impulses.

'Does Section 144 follow us around?': Maruti Suzuki workers detained, humiliated by police inside Gurgaon labour court

In Gurgaon, a peaceful protest led by Maruti Suzuki’s contractual workers rallying for equal pay and dignity faces its toughest battle yet - the ominous Section 144. After a violent police clampdown blocked a tripartite meeting between the automobile giant’s management, labour department and the protestors, a reporter recounts the harrowing details.

Proportionality Test of the framework for Live-In Relationships Under Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code

The article examines the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code’s framework for live-in relationships, questioning its constitutionality by applying the Puttaswamy proportionality test and highlighting concerns over privacy, autonomy, and excessive state intervention.

When will Raosaheb’s arbitrator decide?

Arbitration or litigation, when you are waiting for Godot, you wait for a long time.

My experiments with law: Gandhi’s exploration of law’s potential

The Gandhian archive reveals not a dismissal of the law, but rather a creative and passionate engagement with it, writes Arvind Narrain. 

Gandhian influence on the constitutional movement for Independence

India achieved independence mainly through a process of long peaceful and non-violent constitutional means founded on Gandhism, writes Mohan V. Katarki.

Sabarmati Ashram: Betrayed by its sentries

In Ahmedabad, Sabarmati Ashram is popularly called Gandhi Ashram, in future it will be known as Modi Ashram. That is the objective of the megalomaniac, writes Tushar Gandhi.

Identity politics, law and queerness in India: Reflections on six years since Navtej

While visibility is crucial, focusing solely on it can short-circuit the more profound understanding of how queer identities are socially and materially produced, write Aditya Krishna and Sagrika Rajora.

Rahim Ali: A therapeutic judgment

Can restoration of the citizenship of a dead man act as a therapeutic balm for people facing similar challenges?

Rahim Ali: Restoring a dead man’s citizenship

If restoring a dead man’s citizenship twenty years after it was first contested and two years after his death does not have to remain a cruel joke, his case needs to be made an example and precedent for similar cases.

Calcutta High Court directs govt to implement horizontal reservation for transgender persons

In a significant judgment, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the Kolkata High Court has directed West Bengal to ensure 1 percent reservation for transgender persons in all public employment.

Parliament and not the Supreme Court should grant courts the power to modify arbitral awards

Senior Citizens Act: Judicial divergence shrouds annulment of alienations

Constitutional and legal rights of minority women in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan

To marry or not to marry: Is the choice a right or a luxury?