A single judge bench of India’s Punjab and Haryana High Court held on Friday that the “entire animal kingdom including avian and aquatic” species has a “distinct legal persona with corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person.” Judge Rajiv Sharma ruled, “all the citizens throughout the State of Haryana are hereby declared persons [...]

The Calcutta High Court in the Indian state of West Bengal on Thursday granted protection from arrest and any coercive action until July 10 to a senior police officer. The court’s decision came after India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) served a notice on Rajeev Kumar, former Commissioner of Kolkata Police, over an alleged “suppression [...]

India’s environment tribunal, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on Tuesday directed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to implement measures authorized by it in a 2017 decision. The order aims to curb noise pollution in India’s capital New Delhi. NGT Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel and two other judicial [...]

India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking changes to the country’s election result verification rules. The writ petition, filed by a collective of technocrats called “Tech4All,” had sought a change in election result verification rules. It called for the introduction of “100% random physical counting” of the Electronic Voting Machine-Voter [...]

Police in Sri Lanka have arrested a bureaucrat attached to a parliamentary department for “aiding and abetting” Zahran Hashim, a suicide bomber allegedly responsible for one of multiple bomb attacks targeting churches and hotels across the country last month. Hundreds of people, including foreigners, were killed and injured in the terrorist bombings, in some of [...]

A court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu ruled Monday that a marriage between a cisgender man and a transgender woman is valid. The Madurai-based bench of the Madras High Court held the term “bride,” as used in Section 5 of India’s Hindu Marriage Act, to be inclusive of transgender women. State registration authorities [...]

The Supreme Court of Nepal on Friday issued an interim order directing authorities not to implement a ban imposed by Kathmandu’s District Court on a popular online video game called “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).” Nepal’s Telecommunications Authority had banned the game last week pursuant to the Kathmandu District Court order. Kathmandu’s Metropolitan Crime Division had approached [...]

The High Court of the Indian state of Manipur on Monday ordered the government to release television journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem from police custody. He was detained in November under the National Security Act for “activities prejudicial to the security of the state and to the maintenance of public order.” Wangkhem, who works for a local [...]

A court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has directed the government to ban a popular smartphone video app known as “TikTok,” ruling that the app was “encouraging pornography.” Wednesday’s order also tells the media to refrain from telecasting videos made using the app. The Madurai-based bench of the Madras High Court comprising judges [...]

A delegation of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday for an 11-day visit. The SPT will examine the treatment meted out to people deprived of their liberty in the Indian Ocean island nation and the safeguards in place for their protection from torture. It will hold meetings [...]