Constitutional provisions, institutions and processes the news keeps testing. 579 concepts, each with its definition, key details and a timeline of every news story that touched it.
Separation of powers is the idea that the work of government should be divided among three separate branches, so that no single branch holds all the power....
The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) is the Government of India's programme to give every rural household a working tap connection that supplies safe drinking water...
Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India (often called the MADA case) is a 2024 judgment of a nine-judge Constitution Bench of the...
Simultaneous elections means holding elections to the Lok Sabha and all State Legislative Assemblies at the same time, so that a voter casts both votes in...
A Public Interest Litigation, or PIL, is a case filed in court to protect the rights of the public or of a group of people, rather than the private rights...
The collegium system is the way judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are chosen in India. A small group of the senior-most judges, called the...
Delegated legislation means laws made by a body other than Parliament or a State Legislature, using power given to it by a law. Parliament passes the main...
Compounding means settling a criminal offence without a full trial. Either the victim agrees to settle with the accused, or (in tax and business laws) the...
Cultural and educational rights are fundamental rights in Part III of the Constitution that protect the language, script and culture of different groups...
India's Constitution does not mention a 'right to water' in so many words. But the Supreme Court and High Courts have read it into Article 21, the right to...
The right to vote means every adult citizen can choose who will represent them in the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assembly. In India, this right...
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, or CACP, is the expert body that advises the Government of India on what the Minimum Support Price of each...
Article 14 of the Constitution says: 'The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the...
When the tax department finds that a business has paid less GST than it owed, it must follow a fixed legal process to collect the shortfall. This process is...
The anti-defection law is a set of rules in the Constitution that punishes an elected lawmaker for leaving the party on whose ticket they won. It is found...
A Uniform Civil Code (UCC) means one common set of family laws for every citizen, whatever their religion. Family laws cover marriage, divorce, maintenance...
Delimitation is the process of fixing the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies and redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary...
The Delimitation Commission is constituted under the Delimitation Act (most recently the Delimitation Act, 2002) by the central government. It is chaired by...
The 2014 Supreme Court ruling in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India is the cornerstone of transgender rights in India. A Constitution Bench...
The Sixth Schedule (Articles 244(2) and 275(1)) provides for the administration of tribal areas in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram...
The Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955 empowers the Central Government to control the production, supply, and distribution of commodities deemed...
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, or AFSPA, is a law passed by Parliament in 1958. It gives the Army and other central armed forces special powers in...
The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023 — commonly called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam — was passed by both Houses of Parliament in...
The Code on Social Security, 2020 is a single law that brings together India's main social security laws. Social security means protection for workers...
Article 25 of the Indian Constitution guarantees to all persons the freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise, and propagate religion...
India's foreign policy has historically rested on the principle of 'strategic autonomy' — the freedom to make independent decisions based on national...
A Joint Parliamentary Committee, or JPC, is a small group of MPs taken from both Houses of Parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Parliament sets it...
Following the 2018 Supreme Court judgment, the Central Government constituted the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulation...
India's fiscal federalism, structured under Articles 268–293 of the Constitution, creates a vertical revenue-sharing framework between the Union and states...
India's constitutional approach to women's political representation combines mandatory guarantees at the local level with aspirational targets at the...
Article 3 of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to change the map of India's states. Using an ordinary law, Parliament can create a new state...
Make in India is a Government of India programme to turn India into a global hub for making things: cars, phones, medicines, steel, machines and more. It...
The Census of India is a Union subject. Under Article 246 of the Constitution, read with Entry 69 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule, Parliament has...
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, or EPFO, is a government body that runs India's biggest retirement savings system for salaried workers. Every...
India is the world's second-largest LPG importer, with domestic production meeting only about 41% of demand. Approximately 83% of India's LPG imports...
India and Russia (earlier the Soviet Union) have shared a close relationship since India's independence, built on defence cooperation, energy trade and...
Article 370 was a special article in the Constitution of India that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) a unique position. Most parts of the Indian...
The Sagarmala Programme is the Government of India's flagship programme for 'port-led development'. Its idea is simple: use India's long coastline and...
Section 69A is the primary legal provision empowering the Indian government to order blocking of online content. Inserted into the IT Act by the Information...
Multiple Indian states have enacted Freedom of Religion Acts or anti-conversion laws since Odisha passed the first such statute in 1967. These laws do not...
The National Security Act (NSA), 1980 is a central preventive detention law that empowers the government to detain a person without trial for up to 12...
The Indian Constitution, while federal in structure, is described as 'quasi-federal' with a strong unitary bias. The Seventh Schedule divides legislative...
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is the government body that regulates and promotes the insurance sector in India. It...
The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 is the law that sets out, step by step, how Parliament investigates a complaint against a judge of the Supreme Court or a...
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. Through a series of progressive interpretations, the Supreme Court...
The IT Rules 2021 regulate social media companies operating in India, classifying those with more than 50 lakh (5 million) registered users as Significant...
The NRC is a register of legal citizens maintained under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (inserted by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003), read...
In Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held on 24 August 2017 that the right to privacy...
Article 124(1) of the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court of India, consisting of a Chief Justice of India and, 'until Parliament by law prescribes a...
India is the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world and has seen rapid growth over the past decade.
A major substantive concern about delimitation based on the 2011 Census (and more so on any post-2027 census) is the disproportionate impact on southern...
Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides the foundational 'safe harbour' protection for intermediaries in India. Under this provision, an...
A tribunal is a special body that settles disputes in one particular area, like taxes, company law, the environment or government jobs. It works like a...
EPR is an environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of the product's...
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the statutory regulator for food safety and labelling in India, established under the Food...
India and Myanmar share a land border that is 1,643 km long. It runs through four Indian states in the Northeast: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and...
Euthanasia broadly refers to intentionally ending a person's life to relieve suffering. Indian law draws a sharp distinction between passive euthanasia...
The Planning Commission, established in 1950, was a non-constitutional body that formulated Five-Year Plans and allocated funds to states through plan...
Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of parliamentary and assembly constituencies, carried out by the Delimitation Commission constituted...
A Bill passed by a state's Legislative Assembly does not become a law on its own. It must first be signed (given 'assent') by the Governor. Article 200 of...