Foreign Law Guide

FOREIGN LAW GUIDE

Researching the Law of India

At a glance

Legal system family
Common law under a written constitution. The Supreme Court states that its decisions are binding on all courts within the territory of India, and that local customs and conventions which do not contradict a statute or the Constitution are recognised and taken into account by courts. 5
Official gazette
The Gazette of India, published by the Department of Publication under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, whose Controller of Publication is the authorised publisher, custodian and distributor of Government of India publications. 3
Constitution in force
Constitution of India, in force from 26 January 1950, the date the Supreme Court gives for its own creation on the coming into force of the Constitution. 4
Language of the authoritative text
English. Article 348 of the Constitution provides that the authoritative texts of all Bills, Acts, Ordinances, orders, rules, regulations and bye-laws shall be in the English language until Parliament by law otherwise provides. 1

The authoritative text of an Indian Act is in English, and it is the Constitution that says so. Article 348 provides that, until Parliament by law otherwise provides, the authoritative texts of all Bills, of all Acts passed by Parliament or by a state legislature, of all Ordinances promulgated by the President or a Governor, and of all orders, rules, regulations and bye-laws made under the Constitution or under any such Act, shall be in the English language.

Article 343, five articles earlier in the same Part, makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union. The two sit together without contradiction because they answer different questions. One is about the language of the Union's business; the other is about the language in which its statutes are authoritative. A researcher who reads only the first will go looking for a Hindi statute book and will be puzzled by what turns up.

A second authoritative text exists, and it arrives by a different route. Section 5 of the Official Languages Act, 1963 provides that a translation into Hindi published under the authority of the President in the Official Gazette, on or after the appointed day, of a Central Act, of an Ordinance promulgated by the President, or of an order, rule, regulation or bye-law made under the Constitution or a central Act, is deemed to be the authoritative text of that instrument in Hindi. The appointed day for section 3 of that act is 26 January 1965.

So an Indian instrument may carry two authoritative texts, one in English by force of the Constitution and one in Hindi by force of statute, and whether the second exists for any given instrument turns on whether the President has actually gazetted a translation of it.

The states work the same arrangement in mirror image. Article 348 clause 3 provides that where a state legislature has prescribed a language other than English for its Bills, Acts and Ordinances, a translation into English published under the authority of the Governor in the Official Gazette of that state is deemed to be the authoritative text. Section 6 of the 1963 act adds a Hindi translation published the same way. The practical consequence is that the authoritative English of a state Act lives in that state's own gazette, and a serious search for state legislation has to end there rather than in any central collection.

The language provisions carry expiry clauses that repay a slow reading, and the two houses are not treated alike. Article 120 has business in Parliament transacted in Hindi or in English. Article 210 has business in a state legislature transacted in the official language or languages of the State, or in Hindi, or in English. Both are subject to article 348, and both provide that fifteen years after the commencement of the Constitution the words allowing English are to have effect as if omitted, unless the legislature concerned by law provides otherwise. Two provisos then lengthen that period, and they hang on article 210 alone: twenty-five years for Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura, and forty for Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram. The clauses were drafted to expire. The words that let a legislature provide otherwise are the ones to follow, and the Official Languages Act of 1963 describes itself in its long title as providing, among other things, for the transaction of business in Parliament.

The Gazette of India has a publisher with a name and a job description. The Department of Publication, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, publishes notifications in the various parts of the Gazette of India and in the Delhi Gazette, and its Controller of Publication is the authorised publisher, custodian and distributor of Government of India publications. The department also supplies attested copies of gazette notifications for use in court proceedings, which is a service worth knowing about before the day it is needed.

The same department publishes advertisements for change of name and change of religion, and public notices about adoptions and lost or stolen property, in the Gazette of India. That is why a search of Indian gazette notifications returns private announcements alongside statutory instruments, and why the volume is what it is.

The department's account of its own origins contains a pleasant circularity. On 1 March 1973 the printing and stationery department was split into three, the Directorate of Printing, the Department of Stationery and the Department of Publication, by a government resolution published in Part I Section I of the Gazette of India. The gazette carried the instrument that made its own publisher.

The Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, a date the Supreme Court supplies in the course of describing its own creation on that day. The same pages describe the Constitution as the supreme legal authority binding the legislative, executive and judicial organs of government, and as empowering an independent judiciary to invalidate legislations or government actions which violate the Constitution. Two further sentences on that page decide how this guide classifies India: the decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all courts within the territory of India, and local customs and conventions which do not contradict a statute or the Constitution are recognised and taken into account by courts. Binding precedent alongside judicially recognised custom is the shape the word common law names, and the fact block says so from the court's own sentences rather than from the label.

A last warning about the three services a researcher will actually reach for. The electronic gazette answers, but it rewrites every address with a session identifier and writes its own hostname nowhere in the page it returns, so a stored copy of it cannot be tied to the address it came from. India Code has moved off indiacode.nic.in, which now serves a redirect notice, to a new host that assembles itself in the browser. The Legislative Department's constitution page is a shell of the same kind. None of the three could be cached for this page, and nothing in the fact block is traced to any of them.

Primary sources online

SOURCES

  1. Constitutional provisions on official language, Part XVII and articles 120 and 210. Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. https://rajbhasha.gov.in/en/constitutional-provisions. Accessed 2026-08-30. The department responsible for official language policy reproduces the constitutional provisions it administers. Article 343 makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union. Article 348 provides that, until Parliament by law otherwise provides, the authoritative texts of all Bills, Acts, Ordinances, orders, rules, regulations and bye-laws shall be in the English language, and that where a state has prescribed another language a translation into English published under the authority of the Governor in the Official Gazette of that state is deemed to be the authoritative text. Articles 120 and 210 have business in Parliament and in state legislatures transacted in Hindi or English subject to article 348, with fifteen year clauses that a legislature may displace by law, extended to twenty-five years for Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura and to forty for Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram.
  2. The Official Languages Act, 1963, Act No. 19 of 1963. Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. https://rajbhasha.gov.in/en/official-languages-act-1963. Accessed 2026-08-30. The act that supplies the second authoritative text. Section 5 provides that a translation into Hindi published under the authority of the President in the Official Gazette, on or after the appointed day, of a Central Act, of an Ordinance promulgated by the President, or of an order, rule, regulation or bye-law made under the Constitution or a central Act, is deemed to be the authoritative text of that instrument in Hindi. The appointed day for section 3 is 26 January 1965. Section 6 does the same for state Acts through a publication under the authority of the Governor in the state gazette, alongside the English translation article 348 clause 3 already requires.
  3. Introduction, Department of Publication. Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. https://deptpub.gov.in/about-department/introduction/. Accessed 2026-08-30. The publisher of the Gazette of India describing its own work. The Controller of Publication is the authorised publisher, custodian and distributor of Government of India publications; the department publishes notifications in the various parts of the Gazette of India and in the Delhi Gazette, publishes advertisements for change of name and change of religion and public notices in the Gazette of India, and provides attested copies of gazette notifications for use in court. The page also records that the printing and stationery department was split on 1 March 1973 into the Directorate of Printing, the Department of Stationery and the Department of Publication by a resolution published in Part I Section I of the Gazette of India.
  4. History of the Supreme Court of India. Supreme Court of India. https://www.sci.gov.in/about-department/history/. Accessed 2026-08-30. The court dates the Constitution's entry into force to 26 January 1950 in describing its own creation, and dates its inauguration two days later, on 28 January 1950, in the Chamber of Princes in the old Parliament building where the Federal Court of India had sat since 1937. The court moved to its present building in 1958.
  5. Law, courts and the Constitution. Supreme Court of India. https://www.sci.gov.in/constitution/. Accessed 2026-08-30. The court's own account of the constitutional order: the Constitution is the supreme legal authority binding the legislative, executive and judicial organs, it grants fundamental rights, and it empowers an independent judiciary to invalidate legislation or government action. The judiciary is empowered to invalidate legislations or government actions which violate the Constitution, and the qualification matters: the power is not a general one. The same page states that the decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all courts within the territory of India, and that local customs and conventions which do not contradict a statute or the Constitution are recognised and taken into account by courts. Those two sentences are what the family field on the India page rests on. The page never uses the words common law, so the label is this guide's and the doctrine beside it is the court's.

Reviewed 2026-08-30. 5 sources cited on this page.