India, June 9 -- In a monumental legal victory for employers and high-skilled professionals, a US federal judge has struck down the Trump administration's controversial $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. The decision, handed down by US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston on Monday, effectively invalidates a policy that had been widely criticised as an "unlawful tax" imposed without the necessary authorisation from Congress.

For the thousands of Indian tech professionals and US companies who had been grappling with the prohibitive cost of talent acquisition since the policy's implementation in September last year, the ruling marks the end of a period of deep uncertainty.

The lawsuit, spearheaded by a coalition of 20 Democratic state attorn...