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 moreRamachandraiah was being tried for misappropriating government funds but died in 1991, during the trial. Despite his death, the trial court went on two years later to record findings that he alone had committed the offence. The State then used this finding to get a District Judge to attach his properties (now held by his widow and children, the appellants) under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944, and a High Court later upheld that attachment on a petition under Section 482 CrPC.
The Supreme Court held that a criminal trial simply cannot continue against a dead person, and any finding of guilt rendered after an accused's death is null and void: the presumption of innocence does not evaporate just because the accused dies before conviction. Since the Ordinance's own attachment procedure (Clause 3) requires that the application be made in respect of a person who "ordinarily resides or carries on business" within a district, it could not sensibly be invoked against someone already dead; and since the law required attachment orders to be withdrawn upon an acquittal, the same logic applied with even greater force when the prosecution abated entirely due to death. The Court found the lower courts' handling of the matter deeply troubling, continuing a trial and recording a conviction against a dead man, then using it to attach his family's property, with every level of the judiciary below compounding the error. It set aside all the orders of the trial court, the District Judge, and the High Court, and allowed the appeal.
The death of an accused during a criminal trial ends the prosecution against them: no finding of guilt can lawfully be recorded afterward, and the State cannot use such a void finding to attach a deceased person's property in the hands of their heirs.
