Articles
Whether Draft AI Rules Apply To High Courts ?
On 3 June the Supreme Court released a draft for public comment, titled, “Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence in Courts, 2026.” The instinct is sound since litigants, lawyers and Court already use AI and guardrails are long overdue. But the fine print presents a constitutional problem. The issue is that it is just not a set of housekeeping rules for the Court's own registry or administration as you may expect under Article 145. It is a binding regulatory code with definitions...
Need For Thermal And Ergonomic Mandates In India's New Labour Codes
Noida witnessed over 40,000 garment workers' protest in April, 2026. This was not just attributed to wages, but also over the physical impossibility to survive a 12-hour work shift in temperatures reaching 42 degrees celsius. India has now operationalised its four new labour codes, consolidating 29 statutes. At the centre of this transition is the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, Code, 2020, ('OSHWC Code') which remains vague on safeguards for workers working in thermal stress...
A Successful Resolution Applicant Cannot Escape Through A 'Conditional' Letter Of Intent
For some years, the position under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 has been settled. A successful resolution applicant cannot withdraw or modify a resolution plan once the committee of creditors (CoC) has approved it and the plan has gone to the adjudicating authority. The Supreme Court said as much in Ebix Singapore (P) Ltd. v. Committee of Creditors of Educomp Solutions Ltd., 2021 LiveLaw (SC) 447, holding that the Code leaves a resolution applicant no way out and th at the NCLT...
Latent Bars To Justice: An Empirical Analysis Of Bail
Any member of a legally civilised society can reasonably make this presupposition that law is inherently just and that eventually justice will be served. The law is in a continuous pursuit of justice. The only impediment to the conclusion of this pursuit is the human element. Anthropogenic impediments like corruption, inordinate delays, etc., stain the law and stand in the way of achieving justice.But let's suppose humans were inherently devoid of malice and motivated to follow the law. What if...
Processus Conveniens For Indo-Oman CEPA Corridor
On 8 June 2026, the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, delivered a lecture in Courtroom No. 1 of the UK Supreme Court on the converging Indian and English approaches to commercial dispute resolution. it carried a doctrinal proposition that ought to interest anyone designing dispute architecture for India's new generation of trade corridors – doctrine of processus conveniens, by which the modern commercial actors focus not on the most convenient forum, but on the most appropriate...
Paradox Of Indian Will
“Easy to Make, Hard to Prove”- An Inversion that the Law must CorrectAn extraordinary legal peculiarity that has so far remained obscured from attention is the paradox of Indian Will. The law lays down a thin requirement for making a will provided under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, that the Will must be signed by testator and must be attested by two witnesses. That's all. Law doesn't mandate registration of Will. Therefore, a Will can be scribbled on a plain piece of paper...
When Filing Becomes a Battle: Need for A One-Shot Defect Scrutiny In Supreme Court Registry
No serious lawyer can dispute the importance of procedure in the Supreme Court of India. Procedure brings discipline to filings, protects the record, assists the Bench, and ensures that every petition placed before the Court is properly constituted. In a constitutional court dealing with thousands of matters, Registry scrutiny is not a clerical luxury; it is an institutional necessity. Yet, the lived experience of many advocates and litigants is that filing before the Supreme Court often becomes...
Problem With CFCFRMS: Reading MHA's New Account-Freeze SOP
A partner of a prominent Kochi based architecture firm called me last March seeking immediate help. The bank had placed a lien hold for over Rs 13.5 lakh on two of the firm's bank accounts without any prior notice. Enquiries from the bank only yielded vague replies that the amounts had been blocked as per directions received from Cyber Cell, Mumbai pursuant to a complaint regarding cyber fraud filed by a gentleman from Gujarat. The bank officials provided the contact details of the concerned...
Denying Maternity Leave To mother For Third Child, What Madras High Court Said ?
Shayee Nisha works in the district judiciary in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. In January 2026, she applied for maternity leave for her third pregnancy. The Principal District Judge rejected her application. The reason was a Government Order issued on March 13, 2026, by the Tamil Nadu Human Resource Management Department, restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks. For her first and second children, she would have received full maternity leave. For her third, the state decided she...
Regulating Artificial Intelligence In Indian Judiciary: From Institutional Experimentation To A National Framework
The Indian judiciary's experiments with digital technology began in earnest with the e-Courts Mission Mode Project,[2] which consists of three phases. Phase I (2007-2015) focused on foundational infrastructure, while Phase II (2015-2023) saw system-wide digital maturity via the Case and Information System 3.0, and the setting up of the National Judicial Data Grid. Phase III (2023–present) explicitly focuses on AI, Machine Learning, Optical Character Recognition, and Natural Language Processing...