Daily Bulletin

The Supreme Court, in a ruling on November 7, 2026, granted the Central government an additional two months to implement its March 11 judgment regarding the definition of the OBC creamy layer, while rejecting the government's plea for prospective application. The March 11 verdict, in Union of India vs Rohith Nathan, held that salary or income alone cannot determine creamy-layer status for candidates whose parents work in PSUs, private-sector establishments, or schools; instead, the status and category of their parents' posts must also be considered. This decision could pave the way for service allocation and training of 958 candidates from the 2025 Civil Services Examination (CSE) batch and 148 candidates from the Indian Forest Service Examination, along with nearly 100 other OBC candidates whose caste certificates were rejected since 2016.

The Centre has initiated preliminary discussions regarding the continuation of "safe harbour" legal protections for social media platforms like Meta, Google, and X, which currently shield them from liability for user-generated content under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on November 6 that platforms must assume greater responsibility for preventing online harms, while recent developments, including a Supreme Court order on October 15 concerning online child sexual abuse material, have intensified scrutiny on intermediary liability, prompting concerns from digital rights organizations about potential excessive content removal.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah conducted a high-level meeting in Ahmedabad on November 7, 2026, to review Gujarat’s law and order and internal security situation, attended by Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel. Shah directed the strengthening of border and coastal security along Gujarat’s 2,340-km-long coastline and international border with Pakistan, emphasized intensifying action against drug trafficking networks with financial investigations, and called for a special drive to clear over 25,000 pending forensic cases and expedite the deportation of illegal foreign nationals. He also appreciated Gujarat's performance in implementing new criminal laws, with 92% of chargesheets filed within 60 days.

The Supreme Court, in its quarterly digest for July-September 2026, clarified that the statutory presumption under Section 114A of the Evidence Act, 1872, regarding the absence of consent in sexual assault cases, does not apply mechanically. The Court emphasized that the denial of consent must be assessed within the overall context of the prosecutrix's entire testimony, considering surrounding facts, conduct, and lack of resistance, as ruled in Paramjit Singh Bedi v. State of Punjab. It further stated that the mere presence of spermatozoa does not conclusively establish rape without internal or external injury and in the face of consensual conduct, requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt on credible evidence.

The Supreme Court clarified that the statutory presumptions of guilt under the POCSO Act (Sections 29 and 30) are rebuttable and do not dispense with the prosecution's fundamental obligation to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. In Deepak in JC v. State Govt. of NCT Delhi, the Court stated that the presumption only shifts the evidential burden once foundational facts are established, and the accused can rebut it by pointing out contradictions, demolishing witness credibility, or demonstrating a mismatch between ocular and forensic evidence.

The Supreme Court emphasized that a criminal trial is not an adversarial game, and under Section 165 of the Evidence Act, 1872 (now Section 168, BSA, 2023) and Section 311 of the CrPC (now Section 348, BNSS, 2023), the trial court has a wide, active, and participatory role to elicit truth. In Dhanraj v. State of Rajasthan, the Court highlighted a gross omission when the Public Prosecutor and Trial Judge failed to have the victim identify the accused from the dock, despite the accused's presence in court from judicial custody.

The Calcutta High Court has restrained the holding of elections for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) until a challenge to the State government's delimitation exercise is decided. The West Bengal government had increased the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209 through this delimitation. Petitioners argued that the State government and its agencies resorted to gerrymandering to secure partisan advantage for the ruling political party in West Bengal, based on previous electoral results.

The government has implemented stringent regulatory measures in the chemicals and petrochemicals sector, with 37 Quality Control Orders (QCOs) in force as of August 2026, making Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards mandatory for specified products to enhance quality and curb substandard imports. Concurrently, a nationwide training programme under the Viksit Bharat@2047 Action Plan has been launched to improve workplace safety in Major Accident Hazardous (MAH) units, with 21 programmes conducted as of August 2026, training 2,441 personnel from 1,376 industrial units and aiming to cover all 2,393 MAH units over five years.