On 9 June 2026 the Supreme Court held that a member of the Central Armed Police Forces, including the BSF, may invoke the Delhi High Court's writ jurisdiction under Article 226(1) in a service matter on the strength of the situs of the Union of India and the force headquarters in Delhi, notwithstanding that the cause of action arose outside that High Court's territory. The doctrine of forum non conveniens, the Court held, will rarely apply where a constitutional remedy is pursued under clause (1) of Article 226.
In September 2025 the Kerala High Court held that an insurer's arbitrary repudiation of a medical claim is not merely a contractual wrong but a violation of the right to life under Article 21 — and that writ jurisdiction under Article 226 lies against the insurer. A digest of the facts, the holding on writ maintainability and the nexus requirement, and what the case means for insureds.
A five-judge Constitution Bench, splitting 3:2, held that the Board of Control for Cricket in India is not 'State' under Article 12 — so no writ under Article 32 lay against it. A digest of the facts, the instrumentality test, and the Article 12 / Article 226 divide the case crystallised.
On 26 October 1998, a two-judge bench held that the existence of an alternative statutory remedy is a rule of self-imposed discretion, not an absolute bar — and identified the recognised exceptions, including breach of natural justice, in which a writ will still lie under Article 226.
On 26 July 2010 a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that the High Court should not ordinarily entertain a writ petition under Article 226 challenging measures taken under the SARFAESI Act 2002 where the borrower has an efficacious statutory remedy before the Debts Recovery Tribunal under Section 17. The alternative-remedy rule is self-imposed judicial restraint, applied with 'greater rigour' in tax, cess and bank-recovery matters. The Bench castigated the routine grant of interim relief in such writ petitions and held that the High Court was 'wholly unjustified' in entertaining the writ at the Section 13(4) stage.