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 moreAn elderly woman, Surjit Kaur, was found dead in a field near Morinda, Punjab in March 2005, her body decomposed and her face disfigured with acid, roughly ten days after death. Investigation led to the arrest of her son Avtar Singh, his wife Swaran Kaur, their son Jagmohan Singh, and a servant, Darshan Singh, on the theory that they killed her over a dispute about unpaid lease money for land she had inherited. The trial court acquitted Avtar Singh but convicted Jagmohan Singh, Swaran Kaur, and Darshan Singh, relying heavily on an extra-judicial confession made to a witness (Bhupinder Singh) and corroborating evidence of motive and recovery of physical items; the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld these convictions, and Darshan Singh and Jagmohan Singh appealed to the Supreme Court (Swaran Kaur having died during the appeal's pendency).
The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals, holding that although the "last seen" witness could not identify the appellants in court, his description of a man and woman disposing of a gunny bag on a motorcycle still fit into the broader chain of circumstances. The Court held that an extra-judicial confession need not always be independently corroborated in every detail, and here it was in fact corroborated: Darshan Singh's confessed role (striking the victim with a chair) matched the postmortem findings of a fractured hyoid bone and rib fractures, and his disclosure led to recovery of the chair itself. The Court also treated the appellants' absence from the village immediately after the killing and from the cremation and prayer ceremony as incriminating conduct, and found the non-payment of lease money (the victim's sole means of survival) established a credible motive. Concluding the prosecution had proved a complete chain of circumstances, the Court upheld the convictions and directed the appellants to surrender to serve their remaining sentences.
A conviction can rest on circumstantial evidence and an extra-judicial confession even without a conclusive "last seen" identification, so long as the confession is corroborated by independent facts (such as medical evidence matching the confessed method of assault) and fits coherently into the overall chain of events, and conduct like avoiding a deceased relative's funeral can itself be treated as incriminating.
