Real judgements, distilled
Court judgements broken down into the case type, how the decision played out, and the lesson worth remembering, with the full judgement available as a PDF.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1094
An older qualification must still satisfy the eligibility rules governing the appointment sought. Here, the certificate's early date did not secure reinstatement, and rejection of eligibility should not be confused with a conclusive finding that the certificate was forged.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1095
A party benefiting from a conditional stay must meet its deposit requirement or face enforcement. The additional ₹15 crore deposit secures the pending dispute; it does not settle the land's final compensation or amount to an immediate payment to the landowners.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1093
An alleged attempt to kill does not become a lesser offence simply because the victim avoided a fatal injury. Restoring this charge means the accusation must be tried; it does not establish that the accused is guilty.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1090
For the assessment in this case, assistance reducing ordinary manufacturing costs was taxable even though the government wanted to encourage industry. The purpose and actual operation of the particular subsidy mattered more than its general development label.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1091
Proof that someone caused a serious injury does not by itself prove the additional ingredients of robbery. A court can substitute a lesser offence supported by the evidence; the sentencing reduction here depended on Appa's particular circumstances.
Special Leave Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 1092
Someone challenging an election must ensure that the personal-presentation requirement is met and can be proved. Merely entering the court building does not establish compliance, and a filing defect can end the challenge before the election allegations are examined.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1088
An employee who retires on 30 June may be entitled to the increment that falls due on 1 July after completing a year of service. Authorities that delay paying the amounts due must pay interest after the deadline set by the court.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1089
Recruitment must follow the qualifications stated in the advertisement and the governing Recruitment Rules. A court will not override a merit-based eligibility decision made under those rules merely because the candidate concerned was higher in the written test.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8797
A person who occupied property only because of employment has no independent right to remain once the employment and decree end. Even when a petition fails, courts can make practical arrangements to let a person recover personal belongings.
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Log in to see moreThe appellant was accused of raping a woman on a false promise of marriage after the two had a relationship while she managed a massage parlour where he was a customer. The complainant was, admittedly, already married with two children and not divorced or separated from her husband; the relationship lasted from August 2023 to March 2024, and the FIR was filed days after the appellant married someone else and days after the complainant told him she was pregnant. The Punjab & Haryana High Court had declined to quash the FIR, distinguishing it from a recent Supreme Court precedent (Amol Bhagwan Nehul v. State of Maharashtra); the accused appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held the facts were squarely covered by its own recent ruling in Amol Bhagwan Nehul, where an FIR was quashed because the complainant's consent could not be attributed to any promise of marriage where such a promise was never a realistic possibility. Here too, since the complainant was already married with children throughout the relationship, a promise of marriage from the appellant could never have been a genuine inducement, meaning the relationship was consensual and not obtained by deception. The Court held it was unnecessary to wait for a pending DNA/FSL report on the (now deceased) child, since even a positive result would not revive the "false promise" allegation, and it quashed the FIR and all related proceedings, cancelling the appellant's bail bonds.
A rape charge premised on "consent obtained by a false promise of marriage" cannot stand where the complainant was already married throughout the relationship, since a promise of marriage in such circumstances could never have been a real or believable inducement. Courts will quash such FIRs at the threshold rather than let a fundamentally consensual relationship proceed to trial as a criminal case.
