Year that was for Delhi HC: Interventions, high-profile litigation, overhaul

Rulings with far-reaching implications, high-profile litigation, interventions, and a major overhaul of its composition marked the year 2025 for the Delhi high court. The year began with the court welcoming a new Chief Justice, D K Upadhyay, on January 21, following a nearly one-and-a-half-month vacancy after the elevation of Justice Manmohan to the Supreme Court.

In March, the discovery of stacks of half-burnt cash from the residence of justice Yashwant Varma sent shock waves through the judiciary, prompting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to set up a three-member committee to investigate the matter in August.

The incident prompted a series of reshuffles that altered the high court’s seniority, composition, and resulted in it having the highest number of judges from outside Delhi (nine). Justice Varma’s transfer to the Allahabad high court on March 28, marked the first phase of this unprecedented institutional churn. It was followed by the transfer of judges CD Singh and Dinesh Kumar Sharma to the Allahabad and Calcutta high courts.

In July, the court underwent a second reshuffle. Six judges were transferred to Delhi. Newly transferred judge, Arun Monga, was sent back to his parent Rajasthan high court and Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju was transferred to the Karnataka high court, amid adverse reports, in October. Three new judges, including a woman judge from the Kerala high court and two from the Rajasthan high court, were sworn in.

In March, the Delhi high court barred hotels and restaurants from automatically adding service charges to bills, upholding the Central Consumer Protection Authority’s 2022 guidelines, holding that compulsory service charges violate consumer rights by creating a non-transparent and unfair pricing structure. In July, it rejected Turkish firm Celebi Airport Services’ challenge to the revocation of its security clearance, citing overriding national security concerns.

In August, the court ruled that Delhi University was not obliged to disclose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s academic records, holding them to be personal information protected by privacy.

The court denied bail to student activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and seven others on September 2. Days later, it issued a summons in a suit filed by a wife seeking ₹4 crore in damages from her husband’s alleged paramour for alienation of affection. It held that a spouse may sue a third party for damages if their wilful and intentional interference materially contributed to the breakdown of the marriage.

In December, the court pulled up the Centre and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for its failure to promptly act against IndiGo for not deploying sufficient manpower to meet the new Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) norms that resulted in mass flight cancellations. It set aside the Lokpal’s sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a charge sheet in the cash-for-query case involving Mahua Moitra.

The court suspended the life sentence of former Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case before the Supreme Court stayed the decision in December.

Celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, and Salman Khan moved the court for the protection of their personality rights. The court also heard the estate dispute of the late businessman Sunjay Kapur, involving his children Samaira and Kiaan, with actor Karishma Kapoor and his wife Priya Kapur.

In October, the court said that each of its benches would sit on one Saturday every month to help reduce the growing backlog of cases. The court in August suspended a district judge and recommended proceedings against that judge and another judge, following a complaint of a woman lawyer, who alleged that both tried to coerce her into withdrawing rape allegations against a 51-year-old advocate.

Three advocates and six judicial officers were also sworn in as judges, taking the Delhi high court’s strength to 44 against the sanctioned 60.