Executive & Judiciary

The Supreme Court has reiterated that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is not the final authority to determine citizenship, and that deletion of a name from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) does not result in automatic loss of citizenship status. The remarks came while hearing a plea on West Bengal, where over 33.5 lakh appeals against deletions are pending before 19 Appellate Tribunals and deleted voters are allegedly being denied welfare benefits. This article explains the SIR exercise, the Bihar SIR judgment, the ECI's powers, constitutional citizenship provisions, the Citizenship Act framework, and the appellate mechanism for UPSC Prelims and Mains.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to table the inquiry report against former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma has reopened a major constitutional debate: can a judge avoid public accountability by resigning before the parliamentary removal process reaches its end? The issue is important for UPSC because it connects Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, Articles 124, 217 and 218, judicial independence, parliamentary scrutiny and the accountability gap in India’s higher judiciary.

The Delhi High Court has held that private media organisations may be amenable to writ jurisdiction under Article 226 when they perform a public function and violate a person’s right to privacy. The verdict arose from a broadcast that revealed details capable of identifying a minor survivor of sexual abuse and has triggered a debate on press freedom, privacy, horizontal application of fundamental rights and possible chilling effects on journalism.

The Supreme Court has held that the right to walk on safe, demarcated footpaths is a fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution, and that pedestrians must take priority over motor vehicles. Delivered while deciding a motor-accident compensation case in which a five-year-old boy was killed by a tanker, the verdict reads this right into Article 19(1)(d) and Article 21, places a binding duty on civic bodies, and asks the government to frame a law. This article explains the judgment, the constitutional basis of the right, the expanding scope of Article 21, the duties of municipal bodies, the road-safety data behind the issue, and the way forward.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is facing nationwide criticism after rolling out On-Screen Marking (OSM) — a fully digital answer-sheet evaluation system — for Class 12 board exams for the first time in 2026, amid complaints of low marks, blurred scans, and a crashing re-evaluation portal. This article explains what OSM is, how digital evaluation works, why CBSE adopted it, what went wrong in the rollout, the constitutional and governance questions it raises, and the wider e-governance lessons for India's examination system.

The Supreme Court of India, on 29 May 2026, invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to issue binding, nationwide guidelines directing all High Courts to pronounce reserved judgments within three months, decide bail matters the same or next day, and upload verdicts within 24 hours. Linking judicial delay to a violation of the right to personal liberty under Article 21, the Court created an enforceable accountability framework. This article explains reserved judgments, the Article 142 power, the right to a speedy trial, landmark precedents like Anil Rai and Hussainara Khatoon, and the pendency crisis — everything a UPSC aspirant needs in one place.

On 27 May 2026, the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as constitutionally valid under Article 324, but ruled that the EC's citizenship scrutiny cannot be the final word — doubtful cases must go to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955. This article explains the SIR exercise, the constitutional basis under Articles 324–326, the Representation of the People Act 1950, the distinction between electoral eligibility and citizenship, the proportionality test, key data on deleted voters, and the safeguards mandated by the Court — covering everything UPSC aspirants need on this landmark verdict.

On March 11, 2026, the Supreme Court directed the Centre, states, Union Territories, universities, and public institutions receiving government funds to immediately disassociate three experts—Professor Michel Danino (chairperson of the NCERT social science curriculum committee), Suparna Diwakar, and Alok Prasanna Kumar—from any role in preparing school curriculum or finalising textbooks using public funds. This came after a suo motu case over a withdrawn Class 8 Social Science textbook chapter discussing "corruption in the judiciary," which the court called an attempt to demean the institution and harmful to impressionable students. The court also ordered formation of an expert committee to review legal studies content and barred publication of any rewritten chapter without domain expert approval.

The Supreme Court on March 11, 2026, dismissed the Centre's appeals against judgments from three High Courts—Delhi, Madras, and Kerala—ruling that creamy layer status for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations cannot be based only on parental income. This decision came in cases involving UPSC civil services candidates whose parents work in public sector undertakings (PSUs) or private firms, emphasizing that social status and job equivalence must also be considered to avoid unfair treatment among similar OBC groups.

The Supreme Court, on March 11, 2026, approved the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for 32-year-old Harish Rana, who has remained in a persistent vegetative state for over 13 years following a severe head injury. This decision represents the first real-world use of India's passive euthanasia guidelines, highlighting the need for clear rules on end-of-life care to allow individuals to pass away naturally when medical treatment offers no hope of recovery.

The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Central government and the Election Commission on a public interest litigation challenging a key provision in the 2023 law that grants lifelong immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) from civil or criminal proceedings for actions taken during their official duties. This move comes amid growing concerns about the potential for unchecked power in the electoral body, especially as it could affect the fairness of elections, and the court has agreed to examine the law's validity without staying its operation for now.

A committee set up by the Ministry of Education has come up with key ideas to change how high school education works in India. These ideas focus on cutting down the time students spend in coaching classes to just 2-3 hours a day, making school lessons more like the tests for JEE and NEET, and giving more importance to board exam scores for getting into colleges. This comes as a response to growing worries about too many coaching centres, the stress they cause on students, and how they make education unfair for those who cannot afford extra classes.