Indian Independence Act, 1947

The appellant, the second son of the former Raja of Bushahr, claimed ownership of about 1,720 acres of forest land based on a 1942 patta and subsequent grants by his father, the Raja. The State argued that the 1942 lease of the forests to the Punjab Government divested the Raja of any right to grant those lands and tha…

R.J. Shah appealed to the Himachal Pradesh High Court against a judgment of a single judge of that court, invoking the Letters Patent of the former Lahore High Court under Clause 9/10. The High Court held that the Lahore Letters Patent did not apply to Himachal Pradesh, that no appeal under those clauses was maintainab…

The Supreme Court adjudicated appeals against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's 2007 award allocating waters of the inter-State river Cauvery among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry. The Court upheld the Tribunal's adoption of the principle of equitable apportionment as recognized in international rules…

The President of India issued Constitutional Orders 272 and 273, which applied the entire Constitution of India to the State of Jammu and Kashmir and abrogated Article 370. Simultaneously, Parliament enacted the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, bifurcating the State into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashm…

George Kutty Kuncheria, an Indian citizen, was arrested in Kerala following a U.S. request for his extradition on charges of embezzlement and related offences. The United States supplied authenticated documents, and the Indian Government ordered a magisterial inquiry under the Extradition Act, 1962. The appellant chall…

The brothers of the former ruler of the princely State of Nabha filed suits in the Patiala Sub‑Judge Court seeking possession of a parcel of land called ‘Bir Bhadson’, relying on a 25 April 1948 letter from Maharaja Pratap Singh that they claimed granted the land to them. The State of Punjab, as the successor to Nabha …

The case concerns the Mullaperiyar dam, a masonry dam built on the Periyar River in Kerala but owned and operated by Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu filed a suit under Article 131 of the Constitution seeking to enforce its rights under the 1886 lease agreement and to raise the dam’s full reservoir level (FRL) to 142 ft, as prev…

V.B. Raju, an Indian Civil Service officer who later became a High Court Judge, filed a petition seeking two separate pensions—one for his service as an I.C.S. officer and another for his tenure as a judge—under the High Court Judges (Conditions of Service) Act, 1954. The issues centered on the constitutional validity …

The case concerned the implementation of the 1974 and 1982 India‑Bangladesh agreements concerning the lease of a small tract of land (Teen Bigha) to enable Bangladesh’s access to its enclaves Dahagram and Angarpota. The petitioners argued that the agreements amounted to a cession of Indian territory and a surrender of …