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 moreTwo elderly siblings, son Lt. Col. Paramjit Singh Dhillon and daughter Harinder Singh Ghuman, were locked in a bitter dispute over the estate of their deceased father, having filed competing lawsuits: one a partition suit by the daughter in the Delhi High Court, and another by the son in a Punjab civil court seeking to be declared absolute owner under their father's will. Each appeal before the Supreme Court challenged a separate procedural ruling: the son's challenge to the Delhi High Court's refusal to reject his sister's plaint for lack of jurisdiction, and the daughter's challenge to the Punjab court's refusal to decide two key ownership questions as preliminary issues before the full trial. Despite the Court's repeated attempts to get the siblings to mediate and settle their family dispute, mediation failed each time.
The Supreme Court held that the Delhi High Court was correct to reject the son's application to dismiss his sister's partition suit, since under Section 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure a partition suit covering properties in multiple states can be filed wherever any one of the properties is located, and the land-reforms laws he relied on did not bar the suit. It also upheld the Punjab trial court's decision not to carve out two disputed ownership questions as standalone preliminary issues, agreeing that doing so would only delay a case already pending for years. Finding both appeals without merit, the Court dismissed them and, to avoid conflicting rulings on the same family property, directed that the son's Punjab suit be transferred to and clubbed with the sister's Delhi partition suit, asking the Delhi High Court to decide the combined matter expeditiously given both litigants' advanced age.
When the same family property becomes the subject of two separate lawsuits in different states, courts will act to consolidate them in one forum to avoid contradictory outcomes rather than let relatives fight the same battle twice, and procedural objections aimed at derailing a suit (jurisdiction challenges, requests to carve out "preliminary issues") must show real merit, not just delay.
