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.
This 1978 judgment of a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court (AIR 1978 SC 548) is the foundational precedent on the meaning of 'industry.' It replaced...
In this landmark 'National Anthem case,' the Supreme Court held that expelling three schoolchildren for standing respectfully but not singing the National...
This is the foundational Supreme Court precedent on the constitutionality of state anti-conversion laws. A Constitution Bench upheld the Madhya Pradesh and...
The 16th Finance Commission's report introduces both continuity (41% vertical share retained) and innovation (new GDP criterion, removal of tax effort) in...
On September 28, 2018, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, by a 4:1 majority, held that the exclusion of women aged 10–50 from the...
The original 1985 law permitted a 'split' (para 3) whereby one-third of a legislative party's members could break away without facing disqualification. This...
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 is the central legislation that bifurcated the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana as the 29th...
Article 164(1) of the Constitution states that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor, and other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor...
Article 239AA, inserted by the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991, grants the National Capital Territory of Delhi a legislative assembly and...
Article 280 of the Constitution requires the President to constitute a Finance Commission every five years (or earlier if necessary), consisting of a...
Article 80 defines the composition of Rajya Sabha. It provides for both elected and nominated members, with the nominated members serving a specific...
Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution form the equality code. Article 14 guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws. Article 15(1)...
The legal journey towards recognising passive euthanasia in India began formally with Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug v. Union of India, decided by a two-judge...
Passed by the Australian Parliament on 29 November 2024, this law is the world's first legislated minimum age restriction on social media use at a national...
The BNSS, 2023, enacted as part of three simultaneous criminal law reforms, replaced the 163-year-old Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC). The other two...
The CEC is a Supreme Court-mandated monitoring body for forest, wildlife and environment matters, originally constituted in 2002 in the T.N. Godavarman...
The Committee of Creditors is the central decision-making body in any IBC resolution. It consists of all financial creditors of the corporate debtor, with...
CIBMS is India's existing technologically-integrated border surveillance initiative, first piloted along the International Border in Jammu in 2017-18. It...
The Bill proposes amendments to three constitutional provisions to introduce a arrest-and-custody-based removal mechanism for the Prime Minister, Chief...
Step 1 — Application: A financial creditor (bank, bond holder), operational creditor (supplier, employee), or the corporate debtor itself files an...
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the principal regulatory body for civil aviation in India. It became a statutory body under the Aircraft...
India's Ease of Doing Business (EODB) reforms have been a central pillar of governance since 2014, driven by the objective of improving India's ranking in...
Fast-track courts are special courts constituted by state governments in consultation with the High Courts to expedite specific categories of pending or...
A floor test is the constitutional mechanism by which a government demonstrates it commands the confidence of the elected legislature. It is not expressly...
The Food Corporation of India (FCI), established under the Food Corporations Act, 1964, is the central institution for procurement, storage, and...
Exclusion from the NRC is not a final determination of foreign nationality — that determination is made only by a quasi-judicial Foreigners Tribunal, and...
The tussle over the Western Ghats notification illustrates the federal dynamics of environmental regulation, since forests are a shared (Concurrent List)...
The Code on Social Security, 2020 formally recognises gig workers and platform workers for the first time in Indian labour law — bringing them within the...
'Earth Jurisprudence' is a school of environmental legal philosophy that argues natural entities (rivers, ecosystems) should hold enforceable legal rights...
Sand is a Schedule I minor mineral under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR), 1957. Its extraction from riverbeds is a state...
India's data centre industry has clustered in major metro areas — Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and the Delhi-NCR — which offer connectivity...
India and Nepal share a unique bilateral relationship characterised by an open border, the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and deep people-to-people...
Indian Railways is the world's fourth-largest rail network and one of India's largest public sector enterprises. It is funded through the Consolidated Fund...
The Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947 is the primary legislation governing resolution of industrial disputes in India. It defines the rights of workers...
The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) also contains provisions relevant to hate speech in the digital space. Section 66A, which punished 'offensive'...
A standalone central assistance scheme has long provided financial support to states for the cost of transporting foodgrains from the point of central...
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 was the first systematic legislative effort to rationalise the criminal liability framework governing...
A Large Language Model (LLM) is an AI system based on the transformer architecture, trained on massive text corpora to predict and generate language....
The Leader of Opposition in a state legislative assembly is a constitutionally and statutorily recognised position that plays a critical role in democratic...
Lok Adalat ('People's Court') is the most distinctly Indian ADR mechanism, rooted in Gandhian principles of voluntary settlement. Established under the...
The Mahad Satyagraha took place against the backdrop of severe caste discrimination in colonial India, where Dalits (called 'Depressed Classes' in the...
The National Chambal Sanctuary is a 5,400 sq km tri-state protected area jointly administered by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, stretching...
The NCLT is a quasi-judicial body established under the Companies Act, 2013, which became operational in June 2016. It functions as the adjudicating...
The NDMA is the apex body for disaster management in India, established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. It is chaired by the Prime Minister and is...
The NPR is closely linked to the census exercise and has been a subject of constitutional and political debate.
ONORC, launched in August 2019 and implemented across all 36 States and UTs, enables portability of PDS entitlements — allowing any NFSA beneficiary to...
The PNGRB was established under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006. It is the statutory regulator for entities engaged in refining...
PMAY-G, launched on April 1, 2016, provides financial assistance to houseless and kutcha-house-dwelling rural families for construction of pucca housing...
PMKVY is the Government of India's flagship skill development scheme, launched in 2015 under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. It...
'President's rule' is a colloquial term covering several distinct constitutional/statutory mechanisms for central takeover when the ordinary constitutional...
Rat-hole mining is a form of coal extraction involving narrow horizontal tunnels (rat-holes) dug by hand by workers who enter on all fours. Two variants...
Article 324(5) provides that the CEC shall not be removed from office except in like manner and on like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court — i.e....
A fiscal deficit occurs when a government's total expenditure exceeds total revenue (including borrowing). A revenue deficit is more severe: it means...
This Order, approved by the Union Cabinet and notified in October 2016, created a new institutional structure for Ganga governance, establishing the...
The Scheme for Modernization and Reforms through Technology in Public Distribution System (SMART-PDS) was approved for the period April 2023 – March 2026...
Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 defines 'industry' broadly as 'any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers' and...
The Shompen are the indigenous inhabitants of the interior rainforests of Great Nicobar Island. With an estimated population of around 300 individuals, they...
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notified the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 on January 27, 2026, in the Official...
The World Bank Group is a multilateral development bank (MDB) established in 1944 under the Bretton Woods framework. It comprises five institutions, the two...
Zonal Councils are statutory advisory bodies, not constitutional bodies. They were established under Part III (Sections 15 to 22) of the States...