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.
14543 more judgements for members
You're seeing the newest cases. Log in — it's free — to keep scrolling, search by name or judge, and filter by court or legal area.
Log in to see moreVarious High Courts had quashed both the banks' administrative orders declaring several borrowers' accounts "fraudulent" under RBI's Master Directions on Frauds, and the FIRs and criminal proceedings the CBI had launched against those same borrowers, reasoning that since the administrative fraud-classification was made without giving borrowers a hearing (violating natural justice, per the Supreme Court's own earlier Rajesh Agarwal ruling), the resulting criminal cases built on the same facts should fall too. The CBI appealed, arguing the High Courts had wrongly conflated two separate and legally distinct processes, banks' internal administrative fraud-tagging versus the CBI's own independent criminal investigation, and that in several instances no one had even asked the courts to quash the FIRs, or the CBI hadn't been given a chance to be heard.
The Supreme Court held that an administrative fraud classification and a criminal FIR serve entirely different purposes and belong to different authorities (the bank/RBI versus the CBI), so setting aside the administrative order for lack of a hearing does not automatically invalidate a validly registered FIR built on the same underlying facts: no hearing is legally required before registering an FIR in the first place. Because the case involved dozens of connected appeals in different procedural postures, the Court sorted them into five clear categories (FIR challenged and quashed; FIR quashed without being challenged; interim orders passed or not; investigation ongoing or complete; and CBI never even made a party) and gave tailored directions for each: generally restoring the FIRs and remitting matters back to the High Courts for fresh consideration, while protecting the accused from arrest or coercive steps for a short window and ensuring the CBI is properly heard going forward.
A bank's internal decision to flag an account as "fraudulent" and a police criminal investigation into the same conduct are legally independent: successfully challenging one on procedural grounds (like being denied a hearing) does not by itself wipe out the other, so borrowers facing both a fraud classification and an FIR need to contest each separately.
