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 moreIn December 2014, the appellants (then aged 22 and 19) kidnapped a child for ransom, raped and murdered her, and buried her body by the river Ganga. The trial court convicted them under multiple IPC sections and the POCSO Act and sentenced them to death. The Calcutta High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment but added a harsh rider: life imprisonment without any possibility of remission for the rest of their natural lives. The appellants challenged only this sentencing aspect before the Supreme Court, arguing the "no remission, ever" condition amounted to a double punishment on top of already losing the chance of a fixed-term sentence.
The Supreme Court agreed that imposing life imprisonment with no possibility of remission for the appellants' entire natural lives, on top of denying them a fixed term, imposed an unduly harsh double hardship, especially since the appellants were young (early twenties) at the time of the offence and had already served over eleven years in custody. Relying on its precedents in Union of India v. V. Sriharan alias Murugan and Sukhdev Yadav v. State of NCT of Delhi on modified/fixed-term sentencing as an alternative to death or whole-life imprisonment, the Court modified the sentence to a fixed term of twenty years' imprisonment without remission, preserving eventual finality and some prospect of reintegration rather than imprisonment until death.
Even in cases involving extremely brutal crimes where death sentences are commuted, courts must balance the gravity of the offence against a convict's age, years already served, and the constitutional value of eventual reform: a sentence that removes both a fixed end-date and any possibility of remission can be seen as excessive and may be converted into a defined term of years.
