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 moreDr. Sabu Mathew George, a public-spirited petitioner, filed this writ petition in 2008 seeking directions to Google India, Yahoo! India and Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd. to block search results and advertisements that facilitate sex-selection/sex-determination services, which are banned under the 1994 Act. Over nearly a decade the Court issued a series of interim orders directing the companies to adopt an "auto-block" system for prohibited search terms and directing the Union of India to set up a "Nodal Agency" to receive and forward complaints about offending content.
On this hearing date the petitioner's counsel complained that the Nodal Agency mechanism had not been effective in stopping offending material, while the search engines argued that content could only be removed once specifically flagged, since automated filtering of all possible word combinations was not feasible. The Court did not resolve this dispute on the merits but directed the Nodal Agency and an "Expert Committee" to hold a meeting, with the assistance of the petitioner's counsel, to reach a holistic, cooperative solution, and directed representatives of Google India, Yahoo! India and Microsoft to appear before that Committee. The writ petition was disposed of on this basis, with liberty granted to the petitioner to file a fresh petition if problems persisted.
Even when a law (here, the ban on advertising sex-selection services) clearly applies online, courts may prefer a cooperative, administratively-supervised compliance mechanism between government and technology platforms over a one-time blocking order, recognising both free-speech/right-to-information concerns and the practical limits of automated content filtering.
