Indian Judiciary

The Supreme Court directed lower courts to decide pending default bail applications without relying on its own recent judgment. A judgment of the Supreme Court is considered the law of the land. Article 141 of the Constitution provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within India. The recent judgment in Ritu …

Indian courts are jammed with cases and are seeing pendency increase by the day and they are also functioning with fewer judges than the sanctioned number, the India Justice Report (IJR), 2022 said. The India Justice Report is a collaborative effort undertaken in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for …

Keeping in view the zero tolerance policy against terrorism, the Central Government regularly reviews administrative and legal requirements of National Investigation Agency (NIA). What is the NIA? The agency came into existence in 2008 in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. It is a central agency mandated to investigate all the offences affecting: the sovereignty, security and integrity …

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has lifted limits on the payment of commissions to insurance intermediaries. The new rules: IRDAI has asked insurance companies, including life and non-life, to fix an overall cap on commission to agents, brokers and other intermediaries, giving more flexibility to insurers in managing their expenses. This means …

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has allowed foreign lawyers and law firms to practise in India. According to the Advocates Act, advocates enrolled with the Bar Council alone are entitled to practise law in India. All others, such as a litigant, can appear only with the permission of the court, authority or person before whom the proceedings are …

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition filed by the Karnataka Lokayukta challenging a Karnataka High Court order granting pre-arrest bail to a BJP MLA. Procuring the release of a person from legal custody, by undertaking that he shall appear at the time and place designated and submit himself to the …

The Supreme Court rejected some applications for ‘compassionate appointment’ that were filed by the dependents of deceased government employees in West Bengal. The concept of compassionate appointments can be traced to the Indian Constitution’s Article 39, which is under the Directive Principles of State Policy, and talks about the right to livelihood. …

The Delhi High Court stayed the pruning of over 800 trees in the city and set aside an order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), observing that a more detailed assessment needs to be carried out before trees are trimmed. General guidelines for the pruning and felling of trees …

The National Statistical Office’s latest release of GDP data estimates a further deceleration in growth in the October-December 2022 quarter, a slowdown that the government’s Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) has attributed largely to an upward revision in the year-earlier period’s figures. Gross domestic product is posited to have expanded by …

A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India is presently hearing a set of cases popularly known as the “Maharashtra political controversy cases”. While questions have been raised about whether the situation is now fait accompli, and whether the Court can “turn the clock back” if it wanted to, the …