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-accused and the deceased, an actress, were in a relationship of nearly a decade and wished to marry, but the accused's parents opposed the match and his mother threatened suicide over it. On the evening of 23 February 2002, after the accused conveyed this threat to the deceased, the two were later found together at a hospital having consumed poison; the deceased died the next day while the accused survived. The trial court convicted the accused under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 309 (attempt to suicide) IPC, and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh upheld the Section 306 conviction on appeal while reducing the sentence to two years' imprisonment and raising the fine to Rs. 50,000. The accused appealed to the Supreme Court against his conviction, while the deceased's mother separately appealed (connected appeals) seeking harsher consequences/further investigation.
The Supreme Court examined the evidence, including a disputed postmortem examination conducted by a doctor who was neither on duty nor authorized to perform it, and held that the accused had abetted the offence under Section 306 IPC by purchasing the pesticide used, with knowledge of its lethal nature, and by failing to explain why he and the deceased jointly consumed poison. The Court articulated a broader principle that a surviving participant in a mutual suicide pact is criminally culpable for abetment of suicide under Section 107 IPC (the provision defining abetment, underlying the Section 306 offence), because the reciprocal commitment of each party to die together directly reinforces and enables the other's act: abetment is not limited to physically supplying the means of death but extends to psychological instigation and mutual encouragement. Finding the earlier precedent relied upon by the defence (Velladurai) inapplicable since that case involved no allegation of active participation in a suicide pact, the Court dismissed the appeals and directed the accused to surrender within four weeks; the Section 309 conviction was noted as no longer sustainable given the parties' concession on that point.
In Indian law, a person who survives a mutual suicide pact can be held criminally liable for abetting the death of the other participant: mutual encouragement to die together is itself treated as abetment under Section 107 IPC, even without any direct physical act of causing death.
