Constitutional & Civil Rights Law

Writ proceedings are the largest kind of matter the chamber conducts. Under Article 226 they test the legality of executive and regulatory action: a licence refused or cancelled, a tender condition, a demand raised without jurisdiction, a disciplinary order, an environmental clearance. Under Article 32 they carry the fundamental-rights questions to the Supreme Court.

The chamber's partners have appeared in constitutional matters of general importance, including questions of reservation and of religious excommunication, and in proceedings connected with references to Constitution Benches of the Supreme Court. That work informs the rest: a tax or criminal matter is often, at bottom, a question of the limits of State power, and is argued as one.

Public interest litigation is taken on where the question is a genuine one of public law and the petitioner has standing to raise it. Contempt petitions are pursued where an order of the court has gone unobeyed.

What the work includes

• Writ petitions under Articles 32 and 226 of the Constitution
• Challenges to licensing, tender and regulatory decisions
• Reservation, equality and religious-freedom questions
• Public interest litigation
• Contempt of court proceedings
• Appeals from writ orders: Letters Patent Appeals and special leave petitions