SC Strength Increased to 38
The President has assented to the Supreme Court (Number o Judges) Amendment Act, 2026, taking the Supreme Court’s sanctioned strength from 34 to 38. It was certified a Money Bill under Article 110, so the Rajya Sabha could only return it, and it replaces an Article 123 ordinance issued in May. A piece could work through whether expenditure that is merely incidental satisfies the word “only” in Article 110(1), what judicial review is worth once the Speaker’s certificate is read with Article 122, and why a seven-judge bench has left the question unlisted since 2019.
Facial Recognition at Protests
The Supreme Court will hear an MP’s challenge to police ase of facial recognition at the Jantar Mantar protests, tagged with pending petitions, on the ground that neither the Delhi Police standing orders nor the CrPC Identification Act authorises it. There is room to argue that the case fails at legality and never reaches Puttaswamy’s proportionality stage, that Article 19 is separately engaged because knowing one is being mapped deters attendance, and that hosting biometric data with private vendors defeats purpose limitation under the DPDP Act.
BCI Notification on Non-Enrollment of Protesting Law Students
The BCI told state bar councils not to enrol NALSAR’s entire 2026 graduating batch over a student campaign against the CJI’s invitation to the convocation, only to reverse itself hours later. A bench led by CJI Surya Kant has since issued notice and barred punitive action. This invites an analysis of the Council’s jurisdiction under the Advocates Act over persons not yet enrolled, of Article 14 arbitrariness in a collective bar imposed without notice, and of the chilling effect on Article 19.
Liability in Electrocution Cases
In Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation v. Rekha, the, Suprem Court has held that electrocution claims attract strict liability rather than absolute liability, that Article 226 is the wrong forum where negligence is disputed, and that the Motor Vehicles Act multiplier cannot be imported. Whether MC Mehta survives outside industrial catastrophe, what is left of the Constitutional Tort route, and how compensation is to be measured when the Electricity Act supplies no method, are all open to examination.
Extent of Court Regulation and Interference
The Supreme Court told FSSAI that its February order on front of-pack warning labels was a direction and not a suggestion, and offered to frame the labels itself after the regulator relayed industry opposition. Days earlier, it declined to regulate Al and sent a doxing plea back to the Union. Writing on when a court will supply delegated legislation the executive has withheld, and on whether regulatory capture justifies a lower threshold for intervening, may be warranted.