July was dominated by one story, but not only by one story. Beneath the headlines about protest and Parliament, courts across the country handed down decisions that quietly expanded who and what the law recognises, and who it protects.
Parliament Passes Tougher Anti-Paper Leak Law
The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 cleared the Lok Sabha on 29 July and the Rajya Sabha days later, becoming law by 31 July, amid opposition walkouts in both Houses. The amendment raises the penalty for leaking a question paper to five to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of up to fifty lakh rupees, sets a seven-year term and a ten crore rupee fine for organised examination fraud, and mandates asset confiscation for convicted offenders. Investigating agencies must complete probes within two months, and special courts must conclude trials within three months. The law followed weeks of youth-led protest and the resignation of the Union Education Minister. See this issue's cover story for the full account.
Supreme Court Issues Notice on Plea to End Muslim Polygamy Exemption
On 31 July, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant issued notice to the Union government on a petition filed by activists Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Safia Niaz seeking to declare polygamy among Muslims unconstitutional. The plea argues that Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which criminalises bigamy, should apply uniformly, without the exemption currently available under Muslim personal law, and cites Articles 14, 15 and 21. It also seeks compulsory registration of Muslim marriages and divorces, immediate residential rights for first wives in polygamous marriages, and a fast-track maintenance mechanism. The Court tagged the matter with similar pending petitions. This is a live constitutional question that touches personal law, religious freedom under Article 25, and gender equality simultaneously, and it is likely to generate sustained debate as it proceeds. The Centre's response has not yet been filed.
Madras High Court Grants the Thamirabarani River Legal Personhood
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, in an order dated 31 July, recognised the Thamirabarani river as a juristic person entitled to protection against pollution, describing it as "worshipped as a deity" and therefore possessing a character the law can protect in its own right. The Bench, comprising Justices G.R. Swaminathan and B. Pugalendhi, banned the dumping of clothing, footwear and other ritual waste into the river, while permitting the immersion of ashes in unfired earthen pots. The order followed an earlier July 9 hearing in which the Court was told that up to ninety tonnes of discarded garments had been pulled from the river's bathing ghats over a three-week period. The Bench clarified that the personhood granted was limited strictly to the river's right not to be polluted, and does not create broader rights, duties or liabilities.
Patna High Court: Pressuring a Spouse to Sign Divorce Papers Is Not Cruelty
The Patna High Court held that merely pressuring a spouse to sign divorce and child custody documents during matrimonial negotiations does not, by itself, amount to cruelty under Section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Justice Praveen Kumar's Bench found that such conduct does not meet the threshold of harassment for an unlawful demand or of wilful conduct likely to drive a person to suicide, the two limbs that define cruelty under the section. The ruling reinforces a broader pattern this year of courts distinguishing hard-nosed negotiation during marital breakdown from criminal cruelty, and quashing prosecutions built on vague or omnibus allegations.
All Seven Benches at Karnataka High Court's Dharwad Wing to Sit Entirely Women-Led
The Karnataka High Court's Dharwad Bench issued a roster for 1 August 2026 under which all seven sitting benches, three division and four single-judge, will be presided over exclusively by women judges, a first for any High Court bench in India at this scale. In a related development, the Advocate General has directed an all-women team of law officers to represent the State government before those benches on the same day. Constitutional courts have seen very few all-women benches historically; the Supreme Court's first was in 2013, and Kerala's High Court has the only prior instance of a full bench comprising women judges, in 2022. The Dharwad sitting is being read as a marker of how far, and how unevenly, representation inside the judiciary itself has progressed.