Judgments of 2023

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) entered long‑term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd (APML) and other generators, relying on the New Coal Distribution Policy (NCDP) 2007 which assured 100% domestic coal supply. The 2013 amendment to the NCDP reduced the gua…

The petitioners, who are Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card‑holders, had been allowed since 2005 to appear for the All India Pre‑Medical Test (NEET) and compete for medical seats on parity with Non‑Resident Indians (NRIs) and Indian citizens. In March 2021 the Union of India issued a notification under Section 7B(1)…

Muthoot Leasing and Finance Ltd and another, classified as credit institutions, challenged the levy of interest tax on the interest component embedded in hire‑purchase instalments under the Interest‑Tax Act, 1974. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) held that hire‑purchase agreements are composite transactions wit…

The Uttar Pradesh government awarded a contract for Ayurvedic medicines exclusively to Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd (IMPCL) without inviting tenders, invoking paragraph 4(vi)(b) of the National AYUSH Mission Operational Guidelines. Kerala Ayurvedic Co‑operative Society challenged the award as arbitra…

A public interest litigation was filed in the Jammu & Kashmir High Court alleging that cinema halls prohibited movie‑goers from bringing their own food and beverages, forcing them to purchase expensive and possibly unhealthy items. The High Court directed cinema owners not to prohibit outside food, invoking the right t…

Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 113 of 2016 and Special Leave Petition (Diary) No. 34629 of 2017 were referred to a Constitution Bench to answer five questions concerning the scope of freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) and the enforceability of fundamental rights against non-State actors. The petitions arose from st…

The case concerned whether M/s Endocrinology and Immunology Lab, a pathological laboratory, fell within the ambit of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 and, if so, from which date. The High Court had held that the lab was covered from 6 September 2007 under a Kerala government notification that extended the Act t…

The appellant, Kishore Balkrishna Nand, filed a written complaint with the Sub‑Divisional Magistrate alleging that the respondent had encroached land and set up a shop that caused nuisance. The respondent subsequently lodged a private defamation complaint before a Judicial Magistrate, relying on the appellant's complai…

Wazir Khan was charged under Sections 302 and 201 IPC for the murder of his wife, Bushra, whose body bore 17 incised wounds. The trial court acquitted him, finding the prosecution had not proved guilt beyond reasonable doubt, but the Uttarakhand High Court reversed the acquittal, holding that Khan's failure to explain …

The appellant, brother of an accused named Dharmendra Nath Mishra, was summoned to stand trial under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure despite not being named in the FIR. The FIR, registered under several IPC sections and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, alleged that Dharmendra, his brother and an …

R.M. Doshi, a City Engineer of Jamnagar Municipal Corporation, was found to have committed irregularities in road construction work. After a departmental inquiry, the Commissioner dismissed him on 7 December 1998 under Rule 6 of the Gujarat Civil Services (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 1971. The dismissal was challen…

The appellant, Om Prakash Sahni, challenged the High Court's order that suspended the life‑imprisonment sentences of three convicts (Jai Shankar Chaudhary, Abhay Kumar and Ram Babu Sahni) for the murder of his brother and released them on bail under Section 389 of the CrPC. The Supreme Court examined whether the High C…

The borrower (G. Vikram Kumar) failed to repay a loan to State Bank of Hyderabad, which invoked Section 13(4) of the SARFAESI Act and attached the borrower's properties. The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) allowed the bank to sell the properties but excluded seven flats; Flat No.6401 was not among them. The borrower enter…

Madhumita Das was appointed as a Junior Assistant in a post reserved for Scheduled Castes on the basis of a caste certificate issued in 1996. In 2011 the employer, Bhubaneswar Development Authority, discovered that her school records indicated she belonged to a Brahmin caste and she claimed Scheduled Caste status by vi…

The petitioners, representing workmen of Moser Baer Karamchari, challenged the constitutional validity of Section 327(7) of the Companies Act, 2013 and the waterfall mechanism under Section 53 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), alleging violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The Court examined t…

The appellant (Revenue) challenged the CESTAT’s order that allowed M/s Interarch Building Products to treat its construction services as a works‑contract service, pay service tax on the total contract value and claim CENVAT credit on inputs. The Court examined whether Rule 2A of the Service Tax (Determination of Value)…

The Commissioner of Trade Tax appealed against the High Court's decision that mixing base paint with colourants did not create a new product and therefore did not constitute 'manufacture' under Section 2(e)(i) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948. The assessee, M/s. Kumar Paints, argued that the mixing process merely altere…

The Supreme Court heard a batch of writ petitions filed by Vishal Tiwari and others seeking redress for massive losses suffered by investors after the share price of the Adani Group collapsed following a Hindenburg Research report. The petitions alleged that the Adani companies had manipulated share prices, failed to d…

The dispute concerned partnership accounts where the surviving partner of Super Diamond Tools alleged that K. Mohan Rao falsified accounts and siphoned funds. An arbitrator, appointed after a court reference, found Rao guilty of fraud and awarded a sum with interest. Rao sought to set aside the award under Section 34 o…

The writ petitions challenged the constitutional validity of the practice of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) solely by the executive. The Supreme Court examined Article 324(2) and Constituent Assembly debates, concluding that Parliament was intended to enact a law gover…

The Maharashtra State Financial Corporation (MSFC) adopted the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations but limited the benefit to employees who were on its payroll on 29 March 2010, fixing a retrospective cut‑off date of 1 January 2006. Retired employees and legal heirs of those who died between 1 January 2006 and the imp…

The petitioners, teachers appointed in West Bengal madrasas, filed contempt petitions seeking release of their salaries after the Supreme Court upheld the West Bengal Madrasa Service Commission Act, 2008, overturning a High Court decision that had declared parts of the Act unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had earlie…

The State of Kerala appealed against M/s Akay Flavours and Aromatics Ltd. regarding the entitlement to a five‑year sales‑tax exemption on raw material purchases under SRO 1727/1993. The dispute centered on whether the exemption period began on the date of Central Government approval of the unit or on the date the unit …

The State of Gujarat appealed against the High Court’s decision that the tax‑holiday scheme for multiplexes should be interpreted by a notional calculation of exemption limits based on actual ticket collections, without adding a tax element. The scheme granted up to 100% of eligible capital investment as exemption but …

The respondent, Durga Devi, owned an 11‑biswas land parcel in Kullu and sued the appellant, Baini Prasad, for possession and demolition of a verandah he had constructed on that land in 1986, claiming he believed it to be his own. The trial court ordered demolition and restoration of possession to the respondent; the Fi…

The respondent, claiming ownership of a shop, sued the predecessor of the appellants for arrears of rent and eviction. The trial court passed an ex‑parte decree for Rs 8,000 arrears, Rs 3,212 costs and ordered mesne profits of Rs 2,000 per month until possession. The defendant filed an application under Order IX Rule 1…

Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a writ petition under Article 32 challenging the constitutional validity of Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which allows a candidate to contest elections from more than one constituency for the same office simultaneously. He argued that the provision violated Ar…

The Supreme Court, by a 4:1 majority, upheld the constitutional validity of the Central Government's notification dated 8th November 2016 demonetising all series of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 bank notes under Section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The majority held that the word 'any' in Section 26(2) includes …

The appellant, Prem Singh, was convicted of murdering his two sons by manual strangulation and of causing the disappearance of evidence by throwing their bodies into a canal. The trial and high courts held that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt through a cogent chain of circumstantial evidence, th…

The appellants were charged under several IPC sections and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act for allegedly firing a gun at Rinku Thakur, a member of a Scheduled Caste, and subsequently abusing a witness belonging to the same community. The medicolegal report, however, found no gunshot wound, and the prosecution’s case r…

The Koushik Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society sued for specific performance of a sale agreement, and the respondents were set ex‑parte, resulting in an ex‑parte decree on 15‑02‑1999. The respondents later filed an application under Order IX Rule 13 of the CPC to set aside the decree and sought condonation of a…

The petitioners, legatees of the deceased Mohideen Abdul Khadar, challenged a Madras High Court judgment that upheld the title and possession of Rahmath Beevi over a second scheduled property measuring 15 × 18 feet. The dispute arose from earlier suits where Mohideen claimed title to a first scheduled property and soug…

Anil Kumar was convicted of murder and dowry harassment for setting his wife on fire after she poured kerosene on herself during a quarrel. The prosecution proved that Kumar, under the influence of alcohol, assaulted his wife, after which she drenched herself in kerosene to deter further violence, and Kumar deliberatel…

The respondent filed a suit for possession and mesne profits of a property relying on an unregistered power of attorney, agreement to sell, affidavit and will, while the appellant, who was in possession, claimed title through an oral gift (Hiba) from his brother. The trial court decreed possession in favour of the resp…

The case concerns a murder that occurred in 1995, for which respondent No.2 was initially acquitted by the trial and High Courts but later convicted by the Supreme Court under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. The principal issue before the Court was the appropriate sentence, including whether the death penalty was warr…

The case concerned the share of Derha Ram, son of Kesar Bai, in Mitakshara coparcenary property of his grandfather Phannuram Sahu who died in 1959. Kesar Bai had filed a partition suit claiming her ancestral share; after her death, Derha succeeded to her estate. The trial court awarded Derha a one‑third share, but the …

The petitioner, an OCI card‑holder and U.S. national, applied for a postgraduate medical seat through the NEET (PG) exam and was initially treated as a foreign national, securing a high percentile and being allotted a pediatrics seat in AIIMS during the mock round. Shortly before the first counselling round, the author…

The appeal concerned the inheritance rights of children born of void or voidable Hindu marriages who are legitimated under Section 16(1) or 16(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. The central issue was whether such children are entitled to a share in the ancestral or coparcenary property of their parents, or only to the…

The State of Rajasthan challenged the constitutional validity of sub‑rule (10) of Rule 4 and sub‑rule (3) of Rule 7 of the Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1986, which rejected pending applications for minor‑mineral leases and introduced an auction‑based allocation. The appellants argued that the High Court er…

The case concerned land allotted in the 1960s to landless Scheduled Caste/Tribe persons in Manchirevula village, which the assignees later transferred through a General Power of Attorney to a third party who sold the land. The State of Telangana issued a second show‑cause notice (SCN) alleging violation of the Andhra P…

Gujarat Composite Ltd. entered into a licence agreement with A Infrastructure Ltd. in 2005 that contained an arbitration clause, and later entered into a tripartite loan agreement with the same party and Bank of Baroda that lacked any arbitration provision. Disputes arose over possession, loan repayment, and conveyance…

The appellants filed a petition under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in June 2021, which the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) dismissed on 26 August 2022. They applied for a certified copy of the order, received it on 15 September 2022, and e‑filed an appeal before the National Company Law Ap…

The Constitution Bench examined the scope of Article 142(1) of the Constitution, holding that the Supreme Court may depart from statutory procedure and even substantive law to achieve "complete justice" provided the exercise is guided by fundamental public policy. It ruled that, in cases of settlement between parties, …

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) acquired a parcel of land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, issuing notifications and passing an award, while Anita Singh (Respondent No.1) claimed to have purchased the land. Singh filed a writ petition invoking Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency …

The appellants were arrested in 2019 for offences under the IPC, UAPA and the Explosive Substances Act and a chargesheet was filed within the 180‑day period prescribed under Section 167(2) of the CrPC. They applied for statutory/default bail on the ground that the chargesheet was filed without a sanction order, arguing…

The State of Chhattisgarh filed criminal appeals against the Chhattisgarh High Court’s order quashing FIR No. 9/2020, which alleged that Aman Kumar Singh (AS) and his wife Yasmin Singh (YS) had amassed assets disproportionate to their known sources of income under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The High Court …

The Commissioner of Central Excise valued specially denatured spirits (SDS) supplied by M/s J.R. Organics Ltd. by taking the highest price of SDS at another unit on a particular date, invoking Rule 6(p)(ii) of the Central Excise Rules, 1994. The assessee challenged this, arguing that the value should be based on the mo…

The appellants kidnapped a 14-year-old boy for ransom. The trial court and High Court convicted them under Section 364A IPC (kidnapping for ransom) with life imprisonment. The Supreme Court examined the ingredients of Section 364A, particularly the requirement of a threat to cause death or hurt. The Court found that th…

The appellant, BLS Infrastructure Ltd., filed eight complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act against the respondents. The complainant’s statement and cross‑examination were recorded, and the trial court closed the complainant’s evidence, directing the case to proceed to defence evidence and an app…

The appellant, Vikas Rathi, owned a tool manufacturing firm where the deceased, Bachchu Prasad, worked. After Prasad's murder, an FIR was lodged against unknown persons, and later the deceased's wife alleged Rathi's involvement, leading to his being listed as a prosecution witness. The complainant filed an application …

The appellant imported a cutter suction dredger together with accessories such as pipes, multicats, anchor boats, dredging pumping units and engines, classifying them under Chapter 8905 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and claimed nil duty under Notification No. 21/2002-CUS. The Assistant Commissioner held that many of …

The appellants were convicted under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act after a private complaint by Respondent No.2. While a revision petition was pending, the parties executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) providing for amicable settlement or arbitration, and obligating Respondent No.2 to file a compr…

M/s Godrej Sara Lee Ltd., a manufacturer of mosquito repellents, was assessed by the Excise & Taxation Officer at a 4% VAT rate, but the Revisional Authority, suo motu, raised the rate to 10% and issued show‑cause notices. The company challenged the revisional orders by filing a writ petition under Article 226, arguing…

K.T.V. Health Food Pvt. Ltd. sought to continue operating a storage terminal and an underground pipeline for edible oil imported through Chennai Port. The Union of India, invoking the 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification under the Environment Protection Act, granted post‑facto clearance under paragraph‑4.3, …