Whose Streets Are They? Supreme Court's Suo Motu And The Question Of Urban Safety

The Supreme Court's decision to take suo motu cognizance of the growing concerns surrounding stray dogs in public spaces must be understood not as a reactionary move, but as a constitutional response to an everyday reality that has long remained administratively unaddressed. The Court's intervention comes at a time when public safety, animal welfare and urban governance intersect in ways that demand nuance rather than slogans. In examining this issue, it becomes necessary to move beyond...

Menstrual Health And Hygiene Are Fundamental Rights: A New Dimension Of Article 21

The Constitution of India is a noble document that seeks to promote equality, dignity, and harmony among the people, while also providing a framework for leading a meaningful and dignified life. Beyond being a legal charter, it reflects moral values that guide social conduct and shape the basic principles necessary for individual and collective development. Among its many provisions, Article 21, which guarantees the Right to Life and Personal Liberty, occupies a central position. Over time, this...

NBFC Status Of Corporate Debtor And Insolvency Jurisdiction

In insolvency litigation, one of the most frequently raised preliminary objections is that the Corporate Debtor is a “Financial Service Provider” (“FSP”) and hence immune from the rigours of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”). The exclusion under Section 3(7) for the FSP is frequently used as a jurisdictional shield to delay or defeat admission of insolvency petitions. The difficulty arises where an entity once held NBFC registration but had lost that status before initiation of...

Preliminary And Final Decree In Partition Of Agricultural Land

When the owner of a property dies, disputes often arise among the heirs regarding their respective shares—particularly over which portion of land belongs to whom. To resolve such issues, a partition suit is filed. In cases involving immovable property (other than agricultural land), a preliminary decree is passed, and after the commissioner's report, a final decree is drawn accordingly. However, the process differs in the partition of revenue-paying land (agricultural land). In most cases,...

Dog Dilemma In The Supreme Court's Arena

Lex non cogit ad impossibilia — the law does not compel the impossible. A court's authority does not lie in the sharpness of its words or the stature of its institution, but in a single working assumption: that its orders can be executed in the real world. A judicial order is not advice; it is the Constitution speaking in command. When such a command meets silence because the executive machinery charged with its implementation remains inert, judicial concern is not only natural but warranted....

Can Legal Expense Insurance Bridge India's Justice Gap?

Access to justice occupies a central place in India's constitutional imagination. The right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 has long been interpreted to include meaningful access to courts, while Article 39A directs the State to ensure equal justice and free legal aid so that economic disability does not become a barrier to legal remedies. Yet, despite this normative clarity, the lived reality of litigation in India continues to remain deeply unequal.For a vast section of citizens,...

Freezing Of Bank Accounts And The Mandate Of Section 106 BNSS

Freezing of Bank Accounts and the Mandate of Section 106 BNSSIn recent years, the indiscriminate freezing of bank accounts by cyber police across the country has emerged as a serious procedural and constitutional concern. In numerous cases, innocent account holders find their accounts frozen merely because a small amount of money has been credited to their accounts as part of a cyber fraud trail. Such persons are neither accused nor suspects, yet they are deprived of access to their own money...

Trump Tariffs And The Challenge Before The Supreme Court Of The United States

On April 2, 2025 US President Donald Trump calling it a 'Liberation Day', unveiled a reciprocal tariff chart to be imposed on countries across the globe, with the ostensible objective of reducing crippling American trade deficit. For achieving this objective, the Trump administration invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 that confers the Federal Executive with a broad range of authority to regulate international economic transactions, subject only to a declaration of a...

Law On Reels- Haq (2025): Faith, Feminism And The Fight For Haq

Haq (2025) is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Suparn Varma. It features Yami Gautam Dhar (as Shazia Bano) and Emraan Hashmi (as Abbas Khan) in the lead roles. In its end credits, the film acknowledges that though the makers have taken creative liberties to fictionalize the narrative, it is predominantly inspired by the landmark Supreme Court judgment in Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum 1985 INSC 97. This was an important decision in which Shah Bano succeeded to claimed maintenance...

Has Supreme Court's Interpretation Of S 175(4) BNSS Made Complaints Against Public Servants Harder? A Critical Analysis

The Supreme Court recently held in XXX versus State of Kerala and others that Section 175(4) BNSS is not a standalone provision and must be read with Section 175(3), requiring a complainant to first approach the police and the Superintendent of Police through a written, affidavit-supported complaint before moving the Magistrate against a public servant. While aimed at procedural discipline, the ruling raises concerns that it may unduly shield public servants and make the complaint process...

Beyond The Banner: Designing DPDPA-Compliant Consent Interfaces For E-Commerce Platforms

With the operationalisation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (hereinafter “DPDPA”), the digital economy of India is going to witness a drastic revamp. This revamp will pertinently change the perception of digital business as well as e-commerce operators (“operators”) as to how they collect and process data of their customers without intruding on their privacy. DPDPA will now transform e-commerce operators as to how they design their user interfaces (“UI-UX”), collect and process...

Anticipatory Bail for Proclaimed Offenders: The Evolution of Law

For a considerable period of time, the law relating to anticipatory bail in cases where an accused had been declared a proclaimed offender appeared to be settled—almost rigidly so. Courts across the country routinely dismissed applications under Section 438 CrPC once proclamation proceedings were brought to their notice. The declaration of an accused as a proclaimed offender came to be treated as a near-absolute bar to the exercise of anticipatory bail jurisdiction. The focus of judicial...