Milestones of Indian law

    Landmark judgments.
    The cases every Indian is governed by.

    A handful of judgments decided what your rights actually mean in practice — whether Parliament can rewrite the Constitution, what the police must do before arresting you, whether privacy is a fundamental right. Here they are, in plain English, oldest arguments and all.

    2010s1 case
    Fundamental rights

    Puttaswamy: Privacy Is a Fundamental Right

    Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India

    Nine judges held unanimously that privacy is a fundamental right intrinsic to life and liberty — overruling six decades of contrary authority and laying the foundation for India's data protection law.

    24 August 2017Supreme Court of India 5 min read
    1990s2 cases
    Labour

    Vishaka: The Rules That Became the POSH Act

    Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan

    With no law on the books, the Supreme Court wrote one: a definition of sexual harassment at work and a binding complaints mechanism that governed every Indian workplace for sixteen years.

    13 August 1997Supreme Court of India 7 min read
    Criminal

    D.K. Basu: What Police Must Do When Arresting

    D. K. Basu v. State of West Bengal

    Eleven binding requirements the police must follow every single time they arrest or detain someone — the arrest memo, the right to have someone informed, the medical examination. This is the checklist your rights are made of.

    18 December 1996Supreme Court of India 7 min read
    1970s2 cases
    Fundamental rights

    Maneka Gandhi: How Article 21 Grew Teeth

    Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India

    A law that takes away your liberty is no longer enough on its own — the procedure it lays down must itself be fair, just and reasonable. This is the case that turned Article 21 from a formality into a real protection.

    25 January 1978Supreme Court of India 5 min read
    Constitutional

    Kesavananda Bharati: The Limits of Parliament

    Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru v. State of Kerala

    Parliament can amend any part of the Constitution — but it cannot damage or destroy the Constitution's basic structure. Every later challenge to an amendment starts here.

    24 April 1973Supreme Court of India 5 min read

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    General legal information, not legal advice. Landmark rulings are applied differently to different facts. For your own matter, speak to an advocate.