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 moreA three-and-a-half-year-old girl went missing from in front of her house, and her father received threatening phone calls demanding money, followed by recovery of her belongings and a threatening note near a temple. Her dead body was later found in a bag in a dam, with post-mortem evidence indicating death by strangulation. The appellants were convicted by the trial court and the conviction was upheld by the Jharkhand High Court, based entirely on circumstantial evidence, leading to this appeal.
The Supreme Court went through each link in the prosecution's chain of circumstantial evidence, including the alleged handwriting match on the threatening note (never actually forensically verified) and the timeline of the body's disposal versus the estimated time of death (which did not fit the prosecution's theory). It found the circumstances did not form a complete, unbroken chain excluding every reasonable hypothesis other than the appellants' guilt, as required in cases resting purely on circumstantial evidence. Holding that the prosecution had failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt, the Court gave the appellants the benefit of the doubt, allowed the appeal, acquitted them, and ordered their immediate release.
A criminal conviction based only on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain to be proven and to point unerringly to guilt with no other reasonable explanation: gaps such as unverified forensic claims or an inconsistent timeline can be enough to overturn even a conviction upheld by a High Court.
