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 moreThe appellant was convicted by a Sessions Court and the Chhattisgarh High Court for a 1993 bus dacoity, in which armed men held up a passenger bus at gunpoint, robbed the passengers, and shot one of them before escaping. He was allegedly arrested a few hours later carrying a country-made pistol, identified in a test identification parade by two witnesses who were not examined at trial, and identified in court by only one passenger-eyewitness (PW-9) years after the incident. A co-accused tried alongside him was acquitted by the trial court.
The Supreme Court found serious credibility problems with the prosecution's case: the identification parade witnesses who allegedly identified the appellant were never examined in court, so their identification could not be tested or relied upon, and the sole in-court identification came years after the incident. The Court also found a roughly nine-hour unexplained delay between the appellant's alleged arrest and the preparation of the seizure memo for the recovered pistol, along with a discrepancy between the weapon produced at trial and the one described in the seizure memo. Taken together, these gaps seriously undermined the story of the appellant's arrest and the recovery of the weapon, so the Court held the prosecution had failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, set aside both lower court judgments, and acquitted the appellant.
A criminal conviction cannot rest on an identification parade whose witnesses are never produced for cross-examination, or on a weapon "recovery" clouded by unexplained delays and mismatched descriptions. Courts will give the accused benefit of the doubt when the chain connecting him to the crime has such gaps.
