D Y CHANDRACHUD

The State of Madhya Pradesh appealed against the High Court's conversion of the trial court's conviction of Kanha @ OmpraKash from Section 307 (attempt to murder) to Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. The facts revealed that on 8 October 2003 the accused shot Dashrath Singh with a firearm,…

The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board) was granted permission to divert 0.055 hectares of forest land for a drinking‑water intake. It later used the water for industrial purposes, prompting a petition before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which ordered that the water be used only for drinking pu…

The All India Judges Association filed a writ petition challenging the allowances recommended by the Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) for judicial officers and retired judges. The Union and several State governments objected, arguing that the recommendations would impose a financial burden, should be gov…

The Maharashtra cooperative society, engaged in sugar production, sought to delete about 2,000 members under Section 11 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, alleging they did not meet the bye‑law eligibility criteria. The Regional Joint Director (Sugar) issued an omnibus show‑cause notice and, without i…

Madhav Hari Joshi paid Rs 1,75,000 as premium for LIC's Jeevan Aastha Plan but the insurer neither issued the policy nor refunded the amount for nearly five years. Joshi filed a consumer complaint seeking a refund with interest and compensation of Rs 5,00,000. The District Forum ordered a refund and Rs 4,25,000 compens…

The case concerned a Head Constable of the Border Security Force (BSF) who was charged with "disgraceful conduct" for an alleged sexual assault on a junior constable during night duty in April 2006. The Commandant, noting a discrepancy in the date of the incident, ordered the preparation of an additional Record of Evid…

VVF (India) Ltd., a manufacturer of oleo‑chemicals, made a protest payment of Rs 3.64 crore for tax and interest for AY 2013‑14 before an assessment order was passed. After the assessment order imposed a total demand of Rs 27.98 crore, the company filed an appeal but the appellate authority rejected it, stating that th…

The appellants, directors of a company, issued a post‑dated cheque as security for payment under a Power Supply Agreement, but the cheque was later presented and dishonoured after the company failed to pay for electricity supplied. A complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act was filed, and the magis…

Keystone Realtors Pvt. Ltd. undertook a residential redevelopment project in Mumbai. The project’s built‑up area grew from 8,720.32 sq m to 32,395.17 sq m, triggering the need for an Environmental Clearance (EC) under the 2006 EIA Notification, which was granted on 2 May 2013. The appellant later increased the area by …

The appellant filed a complaint alleging that the respondent sold a property without title, inducing the appellant to pay Rs.10 lakh, leading to an FIR under sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 506 IPC. The High Court quashed the FIR under Section 482 of the CrPC, holding that the FIR did not show criminal intent. The…

The petitioners, women officers of the Indian Army who had been granted Permanent Commission following the Supreme Court's Nitisha judgment, challenged their non‑empanelment for promotion to Colonel by selection. They argued that the Army’s cut‑off dates for Confidential Reports (CRs) excluded a substantial portion of …

The appellants Rajesh alias Sarkari and Ajay Hooda were convicted for murder under IPC s.302 r/w s.34 based on the testimony of the victim's father (PW‑4) and brother (PW‑5) who claimed to have witnessed the shooting and taken the victim to the hospital. The Supreme Court examined inconsistencies in their statements, n…

The Supreme Court examined a batch of appeals concerning reassessment notices issued by the Revenue after the Finance Act 2021 amended Sections 147‑151 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The Court considered whether the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (TOLA) and its notifica…

Journalist Sukanya Shantha filed a writ petition alleging that various State prison manuals sanction caste‑based discrimination in the division of labour, segregation of barracks and the classification of "habitual offenders", thereby violating Articles 14, 15, 17, 21 and 23 of the Constitution. The Court examined whet…

The Assistant Commissioner of State Tax detained a consignment of steel on the ground that the purchaser, M/s Commercial Steel Ltd., was attempting to evade SGST and CGST by treating an inter‑State sale as a local sale. The respondent paid the tax and penalty and the goods were released, after which it filed a writ pet…

Amit Kumar Roy, an Air Force airman, applied for a bank probationary officer post without completing the mandatory seven years of service or obtaining prior permission under Air Force Order (AFO) 14/2008. He obtained a provisional No Objection Certificate (NOC) and discharge from the Armed Forces Tribunal, joined the b…

The appellant was convicted of murdering his wife inside their home, where their five‑year‑old daughter also lived. The prosecution relied on forensic evidence, the appellant's blood‑stained clothes, and his conduct in leading police to the weapon, while the defence claimed unknown intruders were responsible. The key l…

The respondent was engaged as a conductor by the Rajasthan State Roadways Transport Corporation on a one‑year contractual basis, with a clause allowing termination at any time without notice. His services were terminated on 21 March 2007. He challenged the termination by filing a writ petition, arguing a breach of the …

Loop Telecom applied for Unified Access Service Licences (UASL) for 2G spectrum and paid a non‑refundable entry fee of Rs 1454.94 crore. The Supreme Court, in Centre for Public Interest Litigation v. Union of India (CPIL), quashed the 2G licences on the ground that the First‑Come‑First‑Serve policy was arbitrary and un…

The Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board (DSSSB) conducted a two‑tier examination for 231 Head Clerk vacancies in 2009, but the Tier‑I exam was delayed until 2014 and only 8,224 of 62,056 applicants appeared. Numerous complaints of question‑paper leakage, mass cheating, lack of randomisation and impersonation led …

The appellant's husband, an account holder of Saurashtra Gramin Bank, applied for a group accident insurance policy by submitting a form to the bank, which was to deduct a Rs 100 premium and forward it to the insurer. He died in an accident shortly after, and the insurer denied the claim, stating the premium had not be…

The petitions arose after Hindenburg Research alleged that the Adani Group manipulated its share price and failed to disclose related‑party transactions, prompting the petitioner to seek a court‑monitored investigation by a Special Investigation Team or the CBI and the revocation of certain SEBI regulations. The Suprem…

The Allahabad High Court, hearing a writ petition filed by the Association of Retired Supreme Court and High Court Judges, directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to notify rules framed by the Chief Justice concerning domestic help and other post‑retirement benefits for former judges, and later held a recall application …

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…

The Supreme Court, in an order dated 2 January 2017, directed the appointment of a new senior counsel to assist the Court in nominating members of the Committee of Administrators for the BCCI, after senior counsel Fali S. Nariman expressed a conflict of interest due to his prior retainer for the BCCI in 2009. The Court…

The appellant XYZ, a minor, alleged that she was gang‑raped by the first respondent ABHISHEIK and others. The FIR was lodged on 24 July 2015. The accused claimed he was a juvenile at the time of the offence and produced a matriculation certificate, a school birth register entry and a municipal birth certificate, all of…

The Supreme Court examined petitions seeking the cancellation of the 2024 NEET (UG) exam on the ground that the question paper had been leaked in Hazaribagh and Patna and that the exam’s integrity was compromised. The Court evaluated evidence from the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Central Bureau of Investigation (…

The Supreme Court entertained an interlocutory application filed by the All India Judges Association seeking improvement of judicial infrastructure, particularly in subordinate courts. The Court noted that inadequate infrastructure hampers the delivery of justice and violates constitutional guarantees under Articles 21…

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…

Petitioners Neppali Sai Vikash & Ors sought a further 5‑percentage‑point reduction in the NEET‑PG eligibility percentile, arguing that vacant postgraduate medical seats could be filled. The Union Government had already reduced the cutoff by 15 points across categories, leaving only 282 seats vacant after mop‑up and str…

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…

Lokesh Chadha, proprietor of a courier agency, was convicted by a Special Judge under Sections 23(c) and 25A of the NDPS Act for facilitating the shipment of heroin and pseudo‑ephedrine and sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment plus three years. While his appeal was pending, he applied for suspension of the sen…

The Commissioner of Commercial Tax, U.P. appealed against the classification of unstitched ladies' suits sold by S/S Rujhan Studio. The studio purchased bulk textile, cut it to suit dimensions, performed limited embroidery and 'peco' work, and sold the items as unstitched suits. The issue was whether these goods qualif…

The Central Bank of India conducted an e‑auction of a secured asset under the SARFAESI Act and the successful bidder, Shanmugavelu, deposited 25% earnest‑money. After being granted a 90‑day extension, he failed to pay the balance and the bank forfeited the entire deposit under Rule 9(5) of the SARFAESI Rules. Shanmugav…

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 examined the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) failure to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations, particularly the appointment of a CAG nominee to the Apex Council, despite a prior judgment dated 18 July 2016. The Court found that President Anurag Thakur had sought a letter from th…

The Supreme Court heard extensive arguments in State of Uttar Pradesh v. Jai Bir Singh (Civil Appeal No. 897 of 2002). The Court examined the correctness of the view expressed in Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa (1978) 2 SCC 213, which had been questioned in a prior reference order. Recognising the…

The Jharkhand government, under its 2012 Industrial Policy, promised a 50% exemption from electricity duty for captive power plants for five years, to be effected by a notification within one month. The notification was finally issued on 8 January 2015, but made the exemption prospective, thereby denying the benefit fo…

International Merchandising Co. organized the Chennai Open tennis tournament and entered into agreements with First Serve Entertainment (FSE) for a player's appearance, with Zee Telefilms for broadcast rights, and with Trans World International for overseas telecast rights. The Service Tax Commissioner issued demands u…

The appellant, an Indian citizen and US Green Card holder, was charged in 2014 with forgery and related offences under the IPC and was arrested in 2020. The High Court granted him eight weeks of interim bail but refused to relax the conditions to allow travel to the United States, despite his frequent prior travel and …

M/S. Magma FinCorp Ltd., the financier, entered into a hire‑purchase agreement with Rajesh Kumar Tiwari for a vehicle. Tiwari paid seven instalments before the financier repossessed the vehicle without a notice addressed to his correct address and later sold it. Tiwari filed a consumer complaint alleging unfair trade p…

The Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha and a national trade union challenged two Gujarat State notifications issued under Section 5 of the Factories Act, 1948 that exempted all factories from provisions on working hours, rest intervals and overtime pay during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The petitioners argued that the pandemic did not c…

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 appellant, Morgan Securities, obtained an arbitral award granting post‑award interest of 18% only on the principal sum, while the appellant argued that interest should apply to the total award including pre‑award interest. The dispute centered on the interpretation of Section 31(7)(b) of the Arbitration and Concili…

The Supreme Court, by a 6:1 majority, overruled its earlier decision in E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh and held that sub-classification of Scheduled Castes for the purpose of reservation is constitutionally permissible. The Court examined whether the Scheduled Castes constitute a homogenous class under Artic…

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Bar Association filed a writ petition under Article 32 challenging a 2019 Ministry of Corporate Affairs notification that appointed 28 NCLT members for a three‑year term, alleging it contravened Section 413 of the Companies Act, 2013 which mandates a five‑year term. The Union of…

Madhusudan Bhanuprasad Pandya, who operated a cement pipe manufacturing business on leasehold land in Ahmedabad, applied for exemption under Section 20 of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976. The State Government rejected the application, and the High Court dismissed his writ petition, holding that the la…

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 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…

Luxra Enterprises (the complainant) insured its garment factory against fire for Rs 85 lakh. After a fire on 12‑07‑2000 it claimed the loss. The insurer’s head office appointed a first surveyor who accepted a loss of Rs 54,93,865. The insurer later appointed a second surveyor who reduced the loss to Rs 24,76,585 and su…

The Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board (the Board) floated a housing scheme for economically weaker sections in 1982, for which the respondent paid a registration fee of Rs.500 (later Rs.1000). The registration booklet and the U.P. Awas Evam Vikas Parishad Rules, 1979, required a written consent for participat…

The Shree Shree Ram Janki Ji Asthan Tapovan Mandir Trust and its pujari challenged a Jharkhand High Court order that, based on a public‑interest writ, directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the alleged illegal transfer of land belonging to the deity. The High Court had held that the original trust …

The State by Karnataka Lokayukta Police Station appealed against a High Court order that quashed criminal proceedings against M.R. Hiremath on the ground that a certificate under Section 65B(4) of the Evidence Act was not produced. The Court examined whether the certificate must be produced at the stage of filing the c…

The petitioner filed a public interest litigation before the Gujarat High Court under Article 226 challenging a Gujarat Government resolution that created a Governing Council and an Executive Council for the redevelopment of the Gandhi Ashram Memorial (Sabarmati Ashram) and sought that the existing trusts spearhead the…

Three pharmaceutical units in Ankleshwar began operations without obtaining the prior environmental clearance (EC) mandated by the 1994 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification. The Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a 2002 circular allowing defaulting units to obtain an ex‑post‑facto EC, which the Na…

The case arose from a violent incident on 28 September 2005 near Rosy School, Chozhiyamkod, where the appellant Mani stabbed a victim, Soman, who later died, and eight persons were injured. The trial court convicted Mani under Section 302 IPC and the other three accused under Sections 324 and 341 read with Section 34, …

Dr. D.J. De Souza purchased a TurboChem 100 analyzer from CPC Diagnostics, paying 50% of the price. The contract required the buyer to provide an efficiently air‑conditioned room, a 1 KVA online UPS, and broadband for remote diagnostics before installation. The service engineer rejected the buyer’s existing UPS and ins…

Mahendra Construction purchased a hydraulic excavator that was previously insured with New India Assurance (NIA) from November 2004 to November 2005, during which a claim of Rs 36.66 lakhs was settled. The excavator was later insured with Oriental Insurance for the period October 2006‑October 2007, and a fire incident …

The petitioners, an Afghan franchisee, sought appointment of a sole arbitrator under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 to resolve disputes over royalty payments and renewal of franchise agreements with the respondent. The key issues were whether the Limitation Act, 1963 applied to a Section 11…

The appellant, Sonu, was charged under Section 376 IPC after the second respondent lodged an FIR alleging that he had promised to marry her, maintained a consensual sexual relationship for one and a half years, and later refused to marry, leading to the complaint. The appellant sought to quash the charge‑sheet under Se…

The dispute arose from a terminated distributorship agreement between Varun Beverages Ltd. and the complainant, who alleged non‑payment of commissions and issued a cheque that later bounced. The complainant filed a criminal complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and later a Section 156(3) Cr.P.C.…

Kridhan Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (now Krish Steel) submitted a resolution plan for Tecpro Systems Ltd, which was approved by the Committee of Creditors and the NCLT. The appellant deposited Rs 5 crore in escrow but failed to meet further obligations, leading the CoC to vote for liquidation, which was approved by the NCLT…

In 2010 an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act was lodged against T. N. Seenivasagan, a chief engineer of TANGEDCO, for allegedly demanding a bribe. The sanction to prosecute was issued by the Chairman of TANGEDCO, purportedly on behalf of the Board, and the trial proceeded with witnesses PW‑1 (Chairman) and PW‑…

Lt Gen Ravi Dastane challenged the appointments of Lt Gen Dalbir Singh and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra as Army Commanders, alleging that the selections were made solely on seniority contrary to the selection criteria and a 1992 policy requiring two senior eligible officers per vacancy. The Armed Forces Tribunal dismissed his…

The father, a Union employee, died in May 1996 and his widow sought a compassionate appointment for her son. Initial representations were rejected in 1997 and 1999, and the son only approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in 2007, more than a decade after the death. The CAT rejected the application, and su…

The appellant, a director of Siddharth Garments Pvt. Ltd., filed a suit for recovery of Rs. 25,00,000 as an individual, although the loan was advanced by the company. The plaint mistakenly named the plaintiff as "Varun Pahwa through Director of Siddharth Garments Pvt. Ltd." instead of "Siddharth Garments Pvt. Ltd. thro…

The case concerned a murder under IPC sections 302, 149 and 148, where six accused were convicted based largely on the testimonies of two eyewitnesses, PW‑1 Vedram and PW‑2 Jagdish. The post‑mortem report showed only one firearm injury and a single neck injury, contradicting the prosecution’s claim that all pistol‑arme…

The State of Sikkim appealed against a High Court order that directed the accused army personnel, Jasbir Singh and another, to be tried by a court‑martial for a murder under IPC sections 302 and 308. The Supreme Court examined whether the offence fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of a court‑martial or within the c…

The Supreme Court examined whether Spade Financial Services Ltd. and AAA Landmark Pvt. Ltd. could be treated as financial creditors of AKME Projects Ltd. during its corporate insolvency resolution process. It held that the transactions between the corporate debtor and the two entities were collusive, lacking genuine di…