Overview
- The Supreme Court put its November Aravalli hills definition in abeyance on December 29 and ordered a new expert committee to revisit what qualifies as protected terrain.
- A Constitution Bench held that courts cannot fix timelines for gubernatorial or presidential assent to bills, while affirming that indefinite, unexplained delays remain subject to judicial review.
- Evolving stray-dog directions now require capture, sterilisation and vaccination, with removal from hospitals, schools and other institutional premises and relocation to shelters rather than release at those sites.
- Key provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 were stayed pending constitutional scrutiny, with the remainder of the law left operational.
- The year featured prominent recalibrations, including recall of an earlier bar on ex-post facto environmental clearances and other high-stakes course corrections, as the Law Ministry moved to cut pendency and repeal obsolete laws.