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 moreP.E.C. Limited had chartered a vessel from Austbulk Shipping to carry chickpeas from Australia to India, and a dispute over demurrage charges went to arbitration in London, where the sole arbitrator awarded Austbulk about US $150,362 plus interest. When Austbulk sought to enforce this foreign award in the Delhi High Court, P.E.C. objected that the application was invalid because an authenticated copy of the arbitration agreement had not been filed at the time the enforcement petition was first presented, and separately argued it was never bound by the charter party because it had not signed it. The Delhi High Court rejected both objections and allowed enforcement, and P.E.C. appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the word "shall" in Section 47 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, which lists documents (including the arbitration agreement) that a party "shall" produce "at the time of the application" for enforcing a foreign award, should be read as "may" at that initial filing stage, consistent with the pro-enforcement bias of the New York Convention and the fact that Section 48's exhaustive grounds for refusing enforcement do not include late filing of these documents. Since both parties had eventually placed the arbitration agreement on record and neither side was prejudiced by the delay, the enforcement application could not be dismissed on that technical ground. On the second issue, the Court held that under the governing English law and under the Act's own wide definition of "arbitration agreement," a charter party need not be physically signed to be binding, and the evidence (brokers' correspondence, freight payments, and a letter of indemnity issued on the appellant's behalf) showed the appellant had accepted and acted under the charter party. The Court therefore upheld the Delhi High Court's judgment and dismissed the appeal, directing that the deposited award amount be paid to the respondent.
Procedural formalities like producing an authenticated arbitration agreement at the exact moment of filing an enforcement application are not fatal defects if the document is produced later and no real prejudice results: courts favour substance over technical rigidity when enforcing international arbitration awards, and a party's conduct (correspondence, payments) can bind it to an arbitration agreement even without a physical signature.
