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 cooperative housing society won a consumer complaint against its builder in 2007, with the District Forum ordering the builder to execute a formal conveyance deed and pay compensation. Years of litigation followed over how to enforce that order: the builder and other affected parties filed "revision petitions" (rather than appeals) against later execution-stage orders, and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission eventually ruled those revision petitions were not maintainable at all, effectively leaving the society without a way to enforce its win. The dispute exposed a drafting gap in Section 25 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (as amended in 2002), which spoke only of enforcing "interim" orders, not final ones.
With the assistance of the Attorney General of India as amicus, the Supreme Court held there was a genuine drafting error in Section 25(1): the words "an interim order" should be read as "any order," and a missing clause allowing enforcement as if it were a civil court decree (applying Order XXI of the Code of Civil Procedure) should be treated as implicitly present, for the period between 15 March 2003 and 20 July 2020. The Court used this purposive interpretation to fix what would otherwise have been an absurd result: consumer orders that could never be enforced. It also clarified the correct appeal route going forward: an execution order of a District Forum can be appealed to the State Commission, but no further appeal or revision lies against execution orders of the State or National Commission.
When a law contains an evident drafting slip that would otherwise defeat its own purpose (like an "enforcement" provision that inadvertently covers only interim, not final, orders) courts can read in the missing words to make the law workable, rather than leaving successful litigants unable to actually collect on their judgment.
