5 November 2026
A two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India has settled a small but practical gap in civil procedure. Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S. Chandurkar held that a trial court may reject a plaint under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure even before the plaint is registered as a suit. Because Section 2(2) of the Code treats such a rejection as a decree, the Court said the fact of rejection must be entered in a register kept for that purpose under Order IV Rule 2. Where the Civil Manual or the applicable Rules make no room for such an entry, High Courts may use the rule-making power in Section 122 of the Code to provide for it. The Court also restated how Order VII Rule 11 is to be used: the plaint must be read as a whole, material averments in it cannot be ignored, and a plaint is not to be thrown out merely because the suit might fail at the end of a trial. On the facts the Bench found that the plaint did disclose a cause of action, set aside the High Court's judgment and restored the plaint for registration.
Appellant:
G. Pazhanivel
Citation:
2026 INSC 1197
On the Bench:
Ujjal Bhuyan
Register kept under:
Order IV Rule 2
High Court's rule-making power:
Section 122
Why it matters for exams: The ruling fixes two provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure in place: Order VII Rule 11, which allows a plaint to be rejected, and Order IV Rule 2, under which the register of suits is kept. It also names Section 122 of the Code as the source of a High Court's power to make and alter rules of procedure.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
CPC Code of Civil Procedure — The code that governs the procedure of civil courts in India.
Plaint Plaint — The written statement with which a plaintiff begins a civil suit.
Background
The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 extends to the whole of India and bars the employment of a child in any occupation or process. A child is a person who has not completed his fourteenth year, or the age fixed by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, whichever is higher. An adolescent has completed fourteen years but not eighteen, and no adolescent can be put to work in the hazardous occupations and processes listed in the Schedule. Two narrow exceptions remain: a child helping a family or family enterprise that is not hazardous, after school hours or in vacations, and a child artist in audio-visual entertainment other than the circus, and neither can affect the child's schooling. The Central Government can add to or drop items from the Schedule after three months of notice, advised by a Technical Advisory Committee of a Chairman and not more than ten other members. For an establishment run by the Centre, a railway administration, a major port, a mine or an oilfield the appropriate Government is the Central Government, and in every other case the State Government. Where an adolescent is lawfully at work, no spell of work can run beyond three hours without a rest break of at least one hour, work between 7 pm and 8 am and overtime are both barred, and one full day a week is a holiday. The Supreme Court has asked the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development to set up a special cell to watch over how the law is enforced.
Child:
Below 14 years
Adolescent:
14 to 18 years
Technical Advisory Committee:
Chairman and not more than 10 members
Adolescent spell of work:
Maximum 3 hours, then 1 hour rest
Why it matters for exams: The 2016 amendment turned a list-based ban into a blanket bar on employing any child below fourteen, and the Schedule, the Technical Advisory Committee and the family-enterprise exception are standard questions on social justice and labour law.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Schedule the list of hazardous occupations and processes appended to the Act — An adolescent cannot be employed in anything on this list.
Appropriate Government the Government that enforces the Act for a given establishment — The Centre for railways, major ports, mines and oilfields; the State otherwise.
Background
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act of 2006 extends to the whole of India and set up a regulator for the storage, transportation, processing, refining, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas. The production of crude oil and of natural gas is kept outside the Act, which is why the Board is described as a downstream regulator. The Central Government notified that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board stood established with effect from 25 June 2007. Its Chairperson and members are appointed by the Central Government from persons of eminence in management, finance, law, administration, consumer affairs or the petroleum and natural gas industry, on the advice of a Search Committee, and a Member (Legal) must either be qualified to be a judge of a High Court or have held a Grade I post in the Indian Legal Service for at least three years. They hold office for five years or until the age of sixty-five, whichever comes first, and are not eligible for re-appointment, though the Act adds that appointing a member as Chairperson is not treated as a re-appointment. The Board registers entities to sell notified fuels, to run liquefied natural gas terminals and to hold large storage, and it authorises them to lay, build, operate or expand pipelines and city or local natural gas distribution networks. It declares a pipeline a common carrier or a contract carrier, regulates access and transportation rates through a pipeline access code, lays down technical and safety standards, and an Appellate Tribunal hears appeals from it. The regulator has reported that compressed biogas blending in piped and vehicular gas reached 1.7 per cent in the first half of this financial year against a mandated 3 per cent, with 210 working plants running at about 44 per cent of capacity.
Board established:
With effect from 25 June 2007
Outside the Act:
Production of crude oil and natural gas
Term of office:
5 years or age 65, whichever is earlier; no re-appointment
Compressed biogas blending in the first half:
1.7 per cent against a mandated 3 per cent
Why it matters for exams: The line between upstream production, which this Act leaves out, and the downstream activities the Board regulates is the standard question, along with the common carrier declaration and the five-year non-renewable term.
Kerala PSCUPSCBank
In plain words
Common carrier a pipeline that must offer capacity to third parties on non-discriminatory terms — The Board declares a pipeline a common carrier or a contract carrier.
Downstream everything after crude oil and gas come out of the ground — Refining, pipelines, distribution and retail sale.
Background
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981 extends to the whole of India and was passed to carry forward decisions taken at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm. It treats as an air pollutant any solid, liquid or gaseous substance present in the atmosphere in a concentration that is or tends to be injurious to human beings, other living creatures, plants, property or the environment, and a 1987 amendment brought noise inside that definition. The Act leaned on boards that already existed. The Central Board set up under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974, now the Central Pollution Control Board, exercises the powers of the Central Board under this Act as well. In the same way, a State Pollution Control Board set up under the Water Act counts as the State Board for air pollution under this Act, and only where the Water Act is not in force in a State, or no Board was constituted under it, does the State Government constitute a separate State Board for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution. The Central Board's main job under this Act is to better the country's air quality and to prevent, control or abate air pollution; in particular it can advise the Centre, plan a nation-wide programme, co-ordinate the State Boards, resolve disputes among them and organise training for the work. A State Government, after consulting its State Board, can declare any area in the State an air pollution control area, and can forbid the use of any fuel other than an approved fuel there from a date at least three months after the notification. Approved fuels and approved appliances are themselves approved by the State Board. The machinery matters this week: Delhi's 24-hour average Air Quality Index was 379, in the very poor band, on Central Pollution Control Board data, with areas such as ITO, Dwarka, Rohini and Alipur in the severe band.
Central Board under the Act:
Central Pollution Control Board
Noise as an air pollutant:
Added by the 1987 amendment
Notice before banning a fuel:
At least 3 months
Delhi 24-hour average AQI:
379, very poor
Why it matters for exams: That the Air Act borrowed the boards created by the Water Act of 1974, that noise became an air pollutant by the 1987 amendment, and that a State Government declares an air pollution control area are the facts an examiner asks.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Air pollution control area an area a State Government declares under the Act — Inside it the use of an unapproved fuel can be forbidden.
Approved fuel a fuel approved by the State Board for the purposes of the Act — Approved appliances are cleared the same way.
Background
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act of 2007 lets a parent or senior citizen who cannot support himself claim a monthly allowance from his children, or, if he is childless, from a relative who holds or would inherit his property. A senior citizen is an Indian citizen who has turned sixty, and the word children covers a son, a daughter, a grandson and a grand-daughter but never a minor. The State Government constitutes a Maintenance Tribunal for each sub-division, and an officer not below the rank of Sub-Divisional Officer presides over it. A claim is to be settled within ninety days of the notice being served, a limit the Tribunal can stretch once by up to thirty days, in exceptional circumstances and for reasons put in writing. How much can be ordered is for the State Government to prescribe, but the Act caps it at ten thousand rupees a month, and simple interest of between five and eighteen per cent can be added. Before it hears a claim the Tribunal can send the matter to a Conciliation Officer, who reports back within one month. An appeal lies to an Appellate Tribunal for each district, headed by an officer not below the rank of District Magistrate, and the text of the Act gives the senior citizen or parent sixty days to file it. The Allahabad High Court, following its own earlier ruling, has held that children aggrieved by an eviction order under the Act can also appeal under that same provision.
Senior citizen:
Indian citizen aged 60 or above
Maximum maintenance:
Rs 10,000 a month
Time limit for a claim:
90 days, extendable once by 30 days
Appeal:
60 days, to the Appellate Tribunal
Why it matters for exams: The age of sixty, the sub-divisional Maintenance Tribunal, the ten thousand rupee ceiling and the ninety-day limit are the facts asked from this Act, and the appeal provision is now being read to cover children as well.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Maintenance Tribunal the sub-divisional tribunal constituted under the Act — It is presided over by an officer not below the rank of Sub-Divisional Officer.
Conciliation Officer the person or organisation a Tribunal can refer a claim to — The report must come back within one month.
Background
The National Council for Teacher Education Act of 1993 extends to the whole of India and set up the Council to achieve planned and co-ordinated development of teacher education and to keep norms and standards in it. A 2011 amendment added the qualifications of school teachers to that mandate and applied the Act to schools from the pre-primary stage to senior secondary, and to their teachers. The Council is a body corporate with its head office at Delhi, and it can open regional offices elsewhere with the previous approval of the Central Government. Its Chairperson, its Vice-Chairperson and its Member-Secretary are each appointed by the Central Government, and the Secretary of the central department dealing with education sits on it as an ex officio member. The Council lays down the least qualification a person needs to be employed as a teacher in a recognised institution, the norms for teacher education courses, the minimum eligibility for admission to them, their duration and content, and guidelines on the fees an institution can charge. Recognition of a teacher education institution is granted by the Regional Committee concerned, a committee of the Council, which must satisfy itself about finances, accommodation, library, qualified staff and laboratory. The same Regional Committee can withdraw recognition after giving the institution a reasonable opportunity to make a representation, such an order takes effect only from the end of the academic session following the day it is communicated, and an appeal against it lies to the Council. The Council has now constituted an expert committee, chaired by a former head of the Central Institute of Education at the University of Delhi, to revise the teacher eligibility test guidelines so that graduates of the four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme can sit the central and State tests.
Head office:
Delhi
Who recognises an institution:
The Regional Committee concerned
Effect of withdrawal of recognition:
End of the academic session following communication
Appointed by the Centre:
Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Member-Secretary
Why it matters for exams: That recognition of a teacher training institution is given and withdrawn by the Regional Committee concerned, with an appeal to the Council, that the Council sits at Delhi, and that it fixes the minimum qualifications for a school teacher are the facts asked from this Act.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
ITEP Integrated Teacher Education Programme — A four-year degree that can be taken after Class 12 instead of a degree followed by a two-year teaching course.
Recognised institution an institution recognised by a Regional Committee under the Act — Only such an institution can run a teacher education course.
Background
Article 324 of the Constitution places the Election Commission in the hands of the Chief Election Commissioner and as many Election Commissioners as the President fixes, and leaves their appointment to a law made by Parliament. Parliament made that law in 2023; it replaced the 1991 statute on the conditions of service of Election Commissioners and the transaction of the Commission's business, and it came from the Ministry of Law and Justice. Under the 2023 Act the President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners on the recommendation of a Selection Committee. That committee has the Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, or the leader of the largest opposition party there, and its recommendation holds even if there is a vacancy in the committee itself. A Search Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary first puts up a panel of names, and only a person who holds or has held a post equivalent to Secretary to the central government is eligible. The Act as passed pays them a salary equal to that of a judge of the Supreme Court, the benchmark the 1991 law had used; the Bill as introduced had pegged salary and conditions of service to those of the Cabinet Secretary and was amended before it was passed. The Commission itself prepares the electoral rolls and conducts elections to Parliament, the State legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President. The Supreme Court has issued notice on petitions challenging Section 16 of the 2023 Act, which stops a court from taking up, or going on with, a civil or criminal case against a serving or former Commissioner over acts done in the discharge of official duties.
Constitutional provision:
Article 324
Selection Committee:
Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
Search Committee head:
Cabinet Secretary
Salary benchmark:
Equal to the salary of a Judge of the Supreme Court
Why it matters for exams: The composition of the Selection Committee, the Search Committee under the Cabinet Secretary, the Secretary-level eligibility bar and the salary kept equal to that of a Supreme Court judge are the examinable points of the law Parliament made under Article 324.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
CEC Act, 2023 the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 — It replaced the 1991 Act on the conditions of service of Election Commissioners.
Search Committee the panel that proposes names to the Selection Committee — It is headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
Background
The Institutes of Technology Act of 1961 declares the institutes of technology named in it to be institutions of national importance and provides for how each is run. As first enacted it covered the institutes at Bombay, Kanpur and Madras; amendments then brought in Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee, and later Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna, Ropar, Tirupati, Palakkad, Goa, Dharwad, Bhilai, Jammu, the institute at Banaras Hindu University and the Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad, while the same Act repealed the separate 1956 Act of the institute at Kharagpur. The institute at Delhi came from the society once known as the College of Engineering and Technology, Delhi. Every institute can teach and research in engineering, technology, the sciences and the arts, hold examinations, grant degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions, and confer honorary degrees. The Act also requires every institute to admit and employ people whatever their sex, race, creed, caste or class, and forbids any test about religious belief for a member, student, teacher or worker. The authorities of an institute are a Board of Governors, a Senate and whatever else its Statutes declare. The Board has a Chairman nominated by the Visitor, the Director as an ex officio member, one technologist or industrialist nominated by the government of each State in the institute's zone, four persons with special knowledge of education, engineering or science nominated by the Council, and two professors nominated by the Senate; the Senate controls and is responsible for the standards of instruction, education and examination. The statute is worth revisiting as Indian universities again missed the top fifty of the QS Asia rankings, with the institute at Delhi the highest placed Indian entry at 66th and 325 Indian institutions ranked in all.
Status given by the Act:
Institution of national importance
Authorities of an institute:
Board of Governors and Senate
Chairman of the Board:
Nominated by the Visitor
Highest placed Indian institution in QS Asia:
The institute at Delhi, 66th
Why it matters for exams: Being an institution of national importance, the Board of Governors with its Chairman nominated by the Visitor, the Senate's charge of academic standards and the open-to-all clause are the examinable features of the statute behind the IITs.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Institution of national importance a status given by a law of Parliament — It lets the institute grant its own degrees under its own statute.
Senate the academic authority of an institute — It is responsible for the standards of instruction, education and examination.
Background
The Census Act of 1948 extends to the whole of India and lays down how a census is taken. The Central Government declares by notification in the Official Gazette that it intends to take a census in the whole country or any part of it, and the count then follows. It can appoint a Census Commissioner to supervise the exercise across the area being counted and Directors of Census Operations to supervise it within the several States, while the State Government appoints the census officers on the ground. The Census Commissioner, the Directors and every census officer are deemed public servants, and every local authority must spare staff for census duty when ordered. Anyone asked a question by a census officer is legally bound to answer it to the best of his knowledge or belief, but no person is bound to give the name of a female member of the household and no woman is bound to name her husband. Giving a false answer, refusing to answer, or refusing a census officer reasonable access to a house is an offence under the Act. Nobody can claim a right to inspect a book, register or record that a census officer has made, and no entry in one is admissible as evidence in any civil proceeding, or in a criminal proceeding other than a prosecution under the Act itself. That machinery is at work now: the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has asked the States to track the population enumeration phase of Census 2027 in real time, the first census taken with digital data collection, with about 34 lakh enumerators and blocks of roughly 700 to 800 people.
Who declares a census:
Central Government, by Gazette notification
State-level supervision:
Director of Census Operations
Enumerators for Census 2027:
About 34 lakh
Enumeration block:
About 700 to 800 people
Why it matters for exams: The Census Act is the statute behind every census: the Census Commissioner, the Directors of Census Operations, the legal duty to answer, and the bar on using census records as evidence are its examinable features.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Census officer a person appointed by the State Government to take or aid the census — Census officers are deemed public servants under the Act.
Population enumeration the house-to-house count of people, the second phase of a census — The house-listing phase comes before it.
Background
The Insecticides Act of 1968 extends to the whole of India and controls the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides so that people and animals are not put at risk. A substance is an insecticide if it is in the Schedule, and the Central Government can bring in others, fungicides and weedicides included, after consulting the Central Insecticides Board. That Board advises the Centre and the States on technical matters under the Act, and the Director General of Health Services is its ex officio Chairman. Clearing a product is the work of a separate Registration Committee set up by the Central Government, with a Chairman and not more than five persons who are Board members, among them the Drugs Controller, India and the Plant Protection Adviser. The Committee studies the formula and tests the maker's claims about how well the product works and how safe it is, allots a registration number and is to issue the certificate within twelve months, which it can stretch once by up to six months. Anyone aggrieved by a refusal to register, or by a cancellation, can appeal to the Central Government within thirty days, and the Centre can also call for the record in revision for a year. Licences to make or sell an insecticide come from licensing officers appointed by the State Government, while testing rests with a Central Insecticides Laboratory under its own Director. The Supreme Court has held that a commercial competitor cannot use that appeal route to attack a registration granted to a rival firm.
Registration Committee:
Chairman and not more than 5 Board members
Time to issue a certificate:
12 months, extendable once by up to 6 months
Appeal window:
30 days, to the Central Government
Why it matters for exams: The split between the Central Insecticides Board, which only advises, and the Registration Committee, which actually registers a product, is the heart of this Act and a frequent agriculture-and-governance question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Central Insecticides Board the advisory board constituted under the Insecticides Act — It advises on risk and safety measures; it does not register products.
Insecticide Analyst an analyst appointed under the Act to test samples — Testing and analysis sit outside the registration process.
Background
Pralay is an indigenously developed quasi-ballistic missile of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The design work was done at the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, with other DRDO laboratories joining in, and the missile system has been manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), one of the development-cum-production partners. The latest flight test was carried out from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast as part of user evaluation trials. Data for the trial was captured by range instruments deployed by the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, which the Defence Ministry said confirmed that all test objectives were met. A user evaluation trial is the stage at which the armed forces themselves assess a weapon, and the Ministry has said that induction has now become imminent, which means the missile is not yet in service. The test was watched by senior DRDO officials and by representatives of the defence industry and the armed forces. The Defence Minister said the missile carries advanced technologies that would add to the technological capability and operational preparedness of the military. The Defence Secretary, who is also DRDO Chairman, congratulated the teams associated with the flight test.
Missile:
Pralay
Launch site:
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island
Range instruments:
Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur
Manufacturer:
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL)
Why it matters for exams: Pralay's development chain is a standard defence question: a DRDO laboratory at Hyderabad designs it, Bharat Dynamics Limited builds it, the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur instruments the trial, and the launch island off Odisha is named after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
DRDO Defence Research and Development Organisation — Its laboratories designed the missile.
User evaluation trial a trial in which the armed forces themselves assess the weapon — It comes before induction into service.