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 separately tried and convicted in four different theft cases (under Sections 379 and 414 read with Section 34 IPC) before Magistrates in Kerala, with each conviction upheld on appeal and in revision by the High Court. Because the offences were tried separately, the sentences were set to run one after another (consecutively) rather than together, which, combined with earlier unrelated convictions, would have kept the appellant in prison for roughly 19 years in total. The appellant challenged only the manner in which the sentences were being made to run, not the convictions themselves.
The Supreme Court held that the convictions and the quantum of sentence in each of the four cases were correct and did not interfere with them. However, relying on its earlier ruling in V.K. Bansal v. State of Haryana on the Court's discretion under Section 427(1) CrPC to direct concurrent running of sentences, and noting that all four offences in this batch were committed on the same day, the Court directed that the sentences in these four cases run concurrently with each other and with the sentence currently being served for an earlier (eighth) crime. The benefit was limited to the substantive sentences only: fines and default sentences for non-payment of fine would still run consecutively. The appeals were accordingly allowed only in part, modifying the sentence structure.
Courts have discretion under Section 427 CrPC to direct that sentences for multiple offences run concurrently rather than one after another, especially where the offences arose from the same day's conduct, but this discretion is case-specific and does not extend to waiving fines or default sentences.
