Legal Glossary

Every term you'll meet in a judgment, a circular, or a hearing — defined in plain English, with the practical “so what” included.

69 terms

A

Arbitration: Private dispute resolution by a tribunal the parties choose, under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Courts' role is deliberately narrow — and the scope of that narrowness is itself perennially litigated.
Article 14: Equality before the law and equal protection of the laws. The provision behind most challenges to arbitrary state action.
Article 141: The law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts in India. The statutory basis of precedent here.
Article 19: The freedoms — speech, assembly, association, movement, residence, profession — each subject to 'reasonable restrictions' the courts must then police.
Article 21: No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except by procedure established by law. Read expansively for decades: privacy, dignity, health, a clean environment, and speedy trial all now live here.
Article 226: The High Courts' writ jurisdiction — wider than Article 32, because it extends beyond fundamental rights to 'any other purpose'.
Article 32: The right to move the Supreme Court directly to enforce fundamental rights. Ambedkar called it the 'heart and soul' of the Constitution.
Assessment: The tax authority's determination of what you owe. Reassessment reopens a closed year, and is fenced with conditions courts enforce closely.

B

Basic structure doctrine: Parliament can amend the Constitution but cannot destroy its essential framework. From Kesavananda Bharati (1973) — the doctrine that keeps the amending power finite.
Bench: The judges hearing a case. A Division Bench is two; a Full Bench three or more; a Constitution Bench is five or more, required where a substantial question of constitutional interpretation arises.

C

Certiorari: A writ quashing the order of a lower court or tribunal that acted without jurisdiction or against natural justice.
Chargesheet: The police's final report alleging enough evidence to put an accused on trial. Filing one starts the trial process; it is not a finding of guilt.
Circular: A regulator's binding instruction to the entities it supervises. Not an Act of Parliament, but for a bank or a listed company the practical effect is the same.
CIRP: Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process — the IBC procedure where a resolution professional runs the company and creditors vote on a rescue plan, against a statutory deadline.
Closure report: The police's final report saying the investigation found nothing to charge. A magistrate need not accept it — but cannot simply order a chargesheet instead.
Cognizance: A magistrate formally taking notice of an offence, which sets the criminal process in motion.
Committee of Creditors (CoC): The financial creditors who vote on a resolution plan under the IBC. Their 'commercial wisdom' is largely beyond judicial review — a point courts repeat often.
Consumer forum: The three-tier redressal machinery (District, State, National) under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 — a cheap, fast route against defective goods and deficient services.
Coram: The judges before whom a matter is listed. 'Coram non judice' means before a judge without jurisdiction — and therefore a nullity.

D

Distinguishing: Accepting a precedent but showing the facts differ enough that it does not apply. How courts escape an inconvenient authority without overruling it.
Doctrine of proportionality: A restriction on a right must pursue a legitimate aim, be suitable and necessary, and not burden the right more than the aim warrants. The standard applied to rights limitations.

E

Ex parte: A hearing or order made with only one side present — because the other did not appear, or because notice would defeat the purpose.

F

Fiduciary duty: The obligation of a director or trustee to act in good faith and in the interests of the company rather than themselves. Codified for Indian directors in section 166 of the Companies Act, 2013.

G

GST: Goods and Services Tax — India's unified indirect tax, and a steady generator of litigation over classification, input credit, and who bears what.

H

Habeas corpus: 'Produce the body.' A writ ordering that a detained person be brought before the court so the detention's legality can be tested. The oldest and least dispensable of the writs.
Holding: What the court decided, as opposed to what it discussed. When a headline says a court 'held' something, the holding is the part that changes the law.

I

IBC: Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. India's unified insolvency regime, built to resolve or liquidate a distressed company on a strict clock rather than let it drift for a decade.
Input Tax Credit (ITC): Credit for GST already paid on inputs, set off against tax on output. Deny it and a compliant business pays twice — which is why ITC disputes are fought so hard.
Insider trading: Dealing in securities on unpublished price-sensitive information. Prohibited by SEBI's PIT Regulations; the hard part is rarely the principle, it is proving who knew what and when.
Interim order: A temporary order holding the position while a case is decided. Often the only relief that matters — a stay obtained in week one can outlive the dispute.

J

Judicial review: The courts' power to test laws and executive action against the Constitution and strike down what fails.

L

Limitation: The deadline for bringing a claim, set by the Limitation Act, 1963. Miss it and a perfectly good case dies unheard, which is why so much litigation is really about condonation of delay.
Locus standi: The right to bring a case — normally you must be the person affected. Indian public interest litigation loosened this dramatically, letting others act for those who cannot.
LODR: SEBI's Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements Regulations — the continuous-disclosure and governance rulebook every listed Indian company lives inside.

M

Mandamus: A writ commanding a public authority to perform a duty it is legally obliged to perform. Not available to compel a discretionary act — only a duty.
Master Direction: The RBI's consolidated statement of its rules on a subject, updated in place — the version a compliance team should actually be reading.
MCA: Ministry of Corporate Affairs — administers the Companies Act and the registry every Indian company files into.
Mens rea: The guilty mind — the mental element an offence requires. Strict liability offences dispense with it, which is precisely why they are controversial.
Moratorium: The IBC's freeze on recovery actions once insolvency is admitted, so the company can be resolved as a whole instead of dismembered by whoever moves first.

N

Natural justice: The irreducible fairness requirements: hear the other side (audi alteram partem), and no one judges their own cause (nemo judex in causa sua).
NBFC: Non-Banking Financial Company — lends like a bank without being one, and is regulated by the RBI under a separate, and steadily tightening, framework.
NCLT: National Company Law Tribunal — the forum for company law disputes, mergers, oppression and mismanagement claims, and corporate insolvency. Appeals go to NCLAT.

O

Obiter dicta: Things said 'by the way' in a judgment that were not necessary to decide it. Persuasive, sometimes quoted for decades, but not binding. Mistaking obiter for ratio is the classic first-year error.
Oppression and mismanagement: A minority shareholder's statutory remedy where a company's affairs are run prejudicially to them or to the company.

P

Per incuriam: A judgment passed 'through lack of care' — one that overlooked a binding statute or precedent. It loses its binding force, which is why parties argue it so hard.
Piercing the corporate veil: Looking past a company's separate legal identity to hold those behind it liable. Exceptional, and courts say so every time they do it.
Prima facie: 'On the face of it.' Enough to proceed, not enough to win. An interim order rests on a prima facie case, not a finding.
Public Interest Litigation (PIL): A petition brought for those unable to approach the court themselves. An Indian innovation from the late 1970s that turned the Supreme Court into a forum of first resort for rights claims — and, critics say, for a great deal else.

Q

Quash: To annul an order, charge, or proceeding — treating it as never validly made.

R

Ratio decidendi: The reason for the decision — the legal principle a case actually turns on. This, and only this, is what binds later courts. Everything else in the judgment is commentary.
RBI: Reserve Bank of India — the central bank and regulator of banks, NBFCs, and payment systems. Its notifications reshape what those entities must do, often on short timelines.
Read down: Interpreting a provision narrowly so it stays within constitutional limits, rather than striking it out entirely. The court's scalpel rather than its axe.
Related party transaction (RPT): A deal between a company and someone connected to it — a promoter, director, or their entities. Heavily regulated because it is the easiest way to move value out of a listed company.
Remand: Sending a case back to a lower court or authority to decide again, usually after an error. Also, in criminal practice, an order committing an accused to custody.
Res judicata: A matter already finally decided between the same parties cannot be relitigated. Litigation has to end somewhere.
Reserved judgment: The bench has heard arguments and will deliver its decision later. A matter can sit reserved for months; the clock is a recurring subject of complaint.

S

SAT: Securities Appellate Tribunal — hears appeals against SEBI, and against certain orders of the stock exchanges and depositories.
SEBI: Securities and Exchange Board of India — the securities market regulator. Makes regulations, investigates, and adjudicates; appeals from its orders go to SAT.
Section 34 challenge: The limited grounds on which an Indian court may set aside an arbitral award. Not an appeal on merits, however much it is argued as one.
Show cause notice (SCN): A notice requiring you to explain why an adverse order should not be passed. The start of most tax and regulatory proceedings, and the point at which the record gets made.
Special Leave Petition (SLP): A request under Article 136 asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal it is not obliged to hear. Discretionary, and the route by which most matters reach the Court.
Stare decisis: 'Stand by what is decided.' The principle that courts follow their own and higher courts' past decisions, so the law stays predictable. Article 141 makes Supreme Court law binding on all Indian courts.
Status quo: An order to keep things exactly as they are. Frequently ordered, and endlessly litigated over what 'as they are' meant on the date.
Stay: An order suspending the effect of a judgment or action pending further hearing. To 'stay' a demand is to stop it biting, not to decide it was wrong.
Struck down: A law (or part of it) declared unconstitutional and therefore void. Distinct from 'read down', where the court narrows a provision's meaning to save it.
Suo motu: 'On its own motion.' A court or commission acting without anyone petitioning it — typically on a news report of something serious.

U

UPSI: Unpublished Price Sensitive Information — information not generally available that a reasonable investor would expect to affect the price. Its definition does most of the work in an insider trading case.

V

Vicarious liability: Being liable for another's wrong because of your relationship to them — an employer for an employee, or a director for a company's default where a statute says so.

W

Writ petition: A direct application to a High Court (Article 226) or the Supreme Court (Article 32) to enforce rights. The five writs: habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto.