The Supreme Court of India issued a stern warning to several States, Union Territories, and High Courts for failing to comply with its earlier directions, cautioning that senior constitutional and administrative functionaries would be required to remain personally present if compliance is not ensured forthwith.

A Bench comprising Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih passed the order while hearing a criminal special leave petition filed by the Union of India arising out of a judgment of the Bombay High Court.

At the outset, the Court recorded that despite repeated orders, compliance had not been effected by several States and High Courts. Among the defaulting States and Union Territories named by the Court were the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Sikkim.

The Court also noted non-compliance on the part of multiple High Courts, including the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta, the Gauhati High Court, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the High Court of Meghalaya, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan, the High Court of Sikkim, and the High Court of Tripura.

In view of the continued failure to adhere to its directions, the Bench directed the Standing Counsel appearing for the States concerned, Union Territory, and High Courts to positively comply during the course of the same day. The Court made it clear that failure to do so would result in the Chief Secretaries of the defaulting States and the Registrars General of the High Courts concerned being required to remain present before the Court on the next date of hearing.

The matter has been listed for further consideration on February 24, 2026.

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General ; Mr. S.v. Raju, A.S.G.; Mr. S Dwarakanath, A.S.G.; Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR; Ms. Nisha Bagchi, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv.; Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv.; Ms. Munisha Anand, Adv.; Mr. Annam Venkatesh, Adv.

For Respondent(s) : Mr. Sidharth Luthra, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Sana Hashmi, AOR; Mr. Sheezan hashmi, Adv.; Mr. Mihir Joshi, Adv.; Mr. Sarthak Jain, Adv.; Mr. Shubham Raj Anand, Adv.;

Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv.; Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR; Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv.; Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv.; Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv.; Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv.; Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv; Ms. Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Adv.

Ms. Shraddha Deshmukh, AOR; Mr. Sanchit Singh, Adv.; Mr. Sarthak Gupta, Adv.; Mr. Prakash Naik, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Rahul Chitnis, Adv.; Mr. Hersh Desai, Adv.; Ms. Shwetal Shepal, Adv.; Mr. Aditya Khanna, Adv.; Mr. Chander Shekhar Ashri, AOR.

Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR; Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.; Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv.; Mr. Ankolekar Gurudatta, AOR; Mr. Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, AOR; Mr. Nishant Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Ankur Savadikar, Adv.; Mr. Kartik Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Preetika Dwivedi, AOR; Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv.; Mr. Ansh Rajauria, Adv.; Mr. Sudarshan Lamba, AOR; Mr. Suryaprakash V.raju, A.S.G.; Mr. S.Dwarakanath, A.S.G.; Ms. Nisha Bagchi, Adv.; Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv.; Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv.

Ms. Munisha Ananad, Adv. ; Mr. Annam Venkatesh, Adv.; Mr. Arun Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. Rajbahadur Yadav, Aor, Adv.;

Ms. Pallavi Langar, AOR; Mr. Vishnu Sharma, Adv. Mr. Kumar Anurag Singh, Adv.; Mr. Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Adv.;

Mr. Kunal Chatterji, AOR; Ms. Maitrayee Banerjee, Adv.; Mr. Rohit Bansal, Adv.; Mr. Varij Nayan Mishra, Adv.; Mr. T. G. Narayanan Nair, AOR; Ms. Samyuktha H Nair, Adv; Mr. Abhay Kumar, AOR; Mr. Shagun Ruhil, Adv.; Mr. Karan Chopra, Adv.; Mr. Shreenivash, Adv.; Mr. Firoz Khan, Adv.; Mr. P. I. Jose, AOR; Ms. P S Chandralekha, Adv.; Mr. Avnish Pandey, AOR; Mr. Niranjan Sahu, AOR; Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR; Mr. Ahanthem Henry, Adv.; Mr. Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Adv.; Mr. Mohan Singh, Adv.; Mr. Aniket Rajput, Adv.; Ms. Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Adv.; Mr. Yeshu Mehta, Adv.; Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv.; Mr. Kumar Mihir, AOR; Mr. Abhay Anil Anturkar, Adv.; Mr. Dhruv Tank, Adv.; Mr. Sarthak Mehrotra, Adv.; Ms. Srbhi Kapoor, AOR; Ms. Subhi Pastor, Adv.; Mr. Uday G; Mr. Naveen Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Swati Bhushan Sharma, Adv.; Mr. S.K. Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Payal Gola, Adv.; Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR; Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Rajkumari Divya Sana, Adv.; Mr. Nupur Kumar, AOR

Mr. S.V. Raju, A.S.G.; Mr. S. Dwarkanath, A.S.G.; Mr. Rajat Vaishnaw, Adv.; Mr. S. Vijay Adithya, Adv.; Mr. Mudit Bansal, Adv.; Mr. Abhyudey Kabra, Adv.; Mr. Annam Venkatesh, Adv.; Mr. G.S. Makkar, AOR; Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR

Mr. Harshad V. Hameed, AOR; Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, AOR; Mr. Abhay Nair, Adv.; Mr. Mayur Goya, Adv.; Mr. Sarthak Srivastava, Adv