Top court delivers assortment of milestone verdicts

The year 2023 witnessed a flurry of Constitution bench verdicts by the Supreme Court, delivering milestone decisions that included ratifying some of the Union government's major moves such as abrogation of Article 370 and demonetisation of 500 and ₹1,000 currency notes, even as the Centre found itself at the receiving end when the court ruled in favour of the Delhi government's legislative and executive control over services in the national capital except for public order, police and land, and questioned the independence of the procedure to pick election commissioners.

- Utkarsh Anand and Abraham Thomas

While the latter two cases prodded the Centre into passing new laws to virtually nullify the court judgments, the top court remained a hive of activity, churning out an assortment of key judgments that expanded limits of jurisprudence.

With a focus on cases having larger ramifications, the Supreme Court worked through the year to deliver more than a dozen judgments on issues ranging from the right to marry for same-sex couples to the rift within the Shiv Sena, while judgments on important cases were reserved on a host of other significant issues, including a challenge to electoral bonds. Important bills affecting personal liberty vis-a-vis integrity and security of State also came up for renewed scrutiny before the top court.

Under the leadership of CJI Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, the Supreme Court worked with full strength of 34 judges for a major part of the year and an unprecedented 52,191 cases were disposed till December 15.

A run-down of the outgoing year will demonstrate that 2023 was as striking as any other year for the top court.

Constitution benches