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 morePolice patrolling in the early hours allegedly caught the respondent transporting country-made liquor and found him carrying 300 grams of charas. A trial court convicted him under the NDPS Act and the Excise Act, sentencing him to 10 years' imprisonment, but the Allahabad High Court set aside the conviction and acquitted him, mainly because of an unexplained one-month delay in sending the seized samples to the laboratory and no evidence of how the samples were safely preserved and handled in the meantime. The State appealed to the Supreme Court against this acquittal.
The Supreme Court noted that the prosecution had failed to explain how and under what conditions the seized contraband and samples were stored at the police station and transported to the chemical examiner, and that the constables who actually carried the samples were never examined as witnesses: a gap the State could not excuse merely because the investigating officer had since died, since other available witnesses could have filled it. Finding the High Court's view that the prosecution's case was not established to be neither unreasonable nor perverse, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the acquittal and dismissed the State's appeal.
In narcotics and excise prosecutions, an unexplained break in the chain of custody of seized contraband, such as unaccounted delay in sending samples for testing or failure to prove how evidence was safely preserved and transported, can be fatal to the prosecution's case, and courts will not readily overturn an acquittal based on such a gap.
