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 moreHindustan National Glass and Industries Ltd. (HNGIL), India's largest glass-packaging maker, went through insolvency proceedings after being admitted to CIRP in 2021. Two resolution applicants competed for it: Independent Sugar Corporation Ltd. (INSCO), which had already obtained Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval for its plan before the Committee of Creditors (CoC) voted, and AGI Greenpac Ltd., a rival glass manufacturer whose own CCI application had been rejected as "not valid" and was still pending when the CoC approved its plan by a 98% vote in October 2022. AGI Greenpac obtained CCI approval only months later, in March 2023, after proposing to divest one of HNGIL's plants, and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld both that approval and the CoC's decision, treating the requirement of prior CCI approval as merely "directory" rather than mandatory. INSCO challenged both NCLAT rulings before the Supreme Court.
By a 2:1 majority (Justice Hrishikesh Roy, with Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia concurring; Justice S.V.N. Bhatti dissenting on this point), the Court held that the proviso to Section 31(4) of the IBC is mandatory, not directory: where a resolution plan involves a "combination" under the Competition Act, CCI approval must be obtained before, not after, the CoC approves the plan. Since AGI Greenpac's plan was approved by the CoC without the required prior CCI clearance, the majority set aside that approval, nullified all actions taken under the plan, and directed the CoC to reconsider INSCO's plan (and any other plan that did have CCI approval as of the original voting date). In a related but separately decided batch of appeals directly challenging the CCI's own approval order on procedural grounds under Section 29 of the Competition Act (such as the lack of a show-cause notice to HNGIL as target company), the Court found no procedural violation and dismissed those appeals, deferring to the CCI's expert assessment on the substance of the combination.
In insolvency sales that involve a merger or acquisition triggering competition-law scrutiny, regulatory approval from the Competition Commission of India must be secured before the creditors vote to approve the resolution plan, not afterward: a resolution applicant cannot get a leg up in a bidding contest by promising to sort out competition clearance later. This was a rare 2:1 split verdict among the judges, showing that even senior judges can genuinely disagree on how strictly to read a statutory proviso.
