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 moreA trust running an Urdu-medium school in a Mumbai slum area, operating out of rented premises, applied to the Collector of Greater Mumbai for allotment of a plot of land reserved for a primary school so it could expand. A rival society, which was not actually running any school, separately lobbied the then Chief Minister (who also held the Revenue portfolio) and was granted the plot instead, a decision the Bombay High Court upheld on the ground that the appellant-trust had never specifically applied for the land to build a primary school.
The Supreme Court agreed that the appellant-trust's own applications were not specifically framed as being for a primary school, so the High Court was not wrong to deny it relief on that narrow point. However, the Court went further and found that the rival society's allotment was itself illegal and arbitrary, since it never filed a proper application in the prescribed format (Proforma-A) and had not even sought recognition to run a primary school. Using its special constitutional powers under Article 142, the Court quashed the land grant to the rival society as well, reasoning that leaving an admittedly illegal allotment undisturbed would amount to the Court perpetuating that illegality. It ultimately directed that the land instead be allotted to the Municipal Corporation, which had told the Court it was willing to build and run the primary school itself in the public interest.
Winning on a technicality does not entitle a party to keep a benefit that was itself granted through an improper, undocumented process: courts can strike down even an unchallenged-on-paper allotment if the underlying grant procedure was arbitrary, and can redirect the benefit toward the public interest rather than either original contestant.
