Indian courts have often accepted documents from the government in a sealed cover, seen by the judges but not by the other side. On April 5, 2023, in Madhyamam Broadcasting v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the practice creates “a culture of secrecy and opaqueness, and places the judgment beyond the reach of challenge.”
Two weeks earlier, in a case on military pensions, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had refused a sealed cover from the government. “I am personally averse to sealed covers,” he said. “There cannot be secrecy in the court.”