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 moreThis is the lead judgment in a consolidated batch of nineteen connected civil appeals, all raising the same question of law, filed by the Income Tax Department against the Delhi High Court's 2012 decision upholding the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal's order in favour of the respondent company. The respondent, a leasing company, had bifurcated its lease rental receipts into a capital (balance sheet) component and a revenue (taxable) component using lease equalization charges based on a Guidance Note published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), rather than treating the entire lease rental as taxable revenue. The Revenue contended that no express provision in the Income Tax Act permitted such bifurcation and that the entire rental should be taxed.
The Supreme Court held that lease equalization is a legitimate accounting step, analogous to splitting a bank EMI into principal and interest components, needed to capture only the real revenue income for tax purposes, and that the absence of an express provision in the Income Tax Act did not bar this method since the Act did not prohibit it either. It held that the ICAI's Guidance Note, being material published by a recognised body of accountants after due deliberation, could properly be relied upon under Section 145 of the IT Act read with Section 211 of the Companies Act to determine real income. Finding no illegality in the respondent's bifurcation method and no force in the Revenue's contentions, the Court dismissed the lead appeal, leaving parties to bear their own costs, and disposed of all the other connected/tagged appeals in the batch on the same basis.
Where a tax statute is silent on a particular accounting method, taxpayers may rely on standards and guidance notes issued by a recognised professional accounting body (such as ICAI) to compute their real taxable income, provided the method is not expressly barred by the statute.
