LUCID LAW
Law Made Simple
Monthly Supreme Court Digest
August 2026 | Supreme Court of India | Subject-wise Classification
Table of Contents
Arbitration
Arbitral Findings Contrary to Material Evidence
A High Court may exercise certiorari jurisdiction where a finding of fact is unsupported by the material evidence on record and amounts to an error of law.
Post-Award Interim Protection – Section 9 Arbitration Act
An Award Debtor may invoke S.9 Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 post-award in rare and compelling cases, and interim protection may be granted where prima facie case, balance of convenience and irreparable prejudice justify preserving the efficacy of a S.34 challenge.
Education Law
Three-year Bar-practice requirement for entry-level Civil Judge recruitment modified.
The Supreme Court modified the manner of implementation of the three-year Bar-practice requirement for entry-level Civil Judge recruitmen. It introduced a transitional scheme under which all law graduates remain eligible up to 31.03.2027, and thereafter required one year of actual practice coupled with one year of structured judicial training and one year of Law Clerkship, each deemed equivalent to one year of practice at the Bar. The scheme is to remain in force for five years.
Matrimonial Law
Revival of maintenance and monetary claims after settlement
A spouse who voluntarily relinquishes monetary and maintenance claims through a settlement cannot revive those claims through subsequent proceedings under the DV Act when the alleged acts predate the settlement; however, a major daughter who was not a party to the settlement is not bound by it.
Treatment of PF and ESPP deductions while determining income for maintenance.
Deductions of Provident Fund and ESPPs cannot be treated as compulsory deductions to reduce monthly income for the purposes of maintenance. Unlike Income Tax payment or professional taxes which are mandatory taxes, PFs and ESPPs are not permanent charges but rather will accrue into the account of the depositor which can be withdrawn by him in the future.
Applicability of S.498A IPC in live-in-relationships
Section 498A is held to be applicable to "live-in relationships" that qualify as "relationships in the nature of marriage" with the intent to marry being established as an intrinsic part thereof.
Taxation
Taxability of referral charges received by automobile dealers.
Referral charges received by an automobile dealer from banks and an insurance company for facilitating loans and insurance constituted taxable Business Auxiliary Service.
Auction Sale –Non-service of statutory notice and exemption from attachment.
Non-service of notice under Rule 2 of the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961 did not invalidate the auction sale where the legal representatives had actual knowledge and suffered no substantial injury; the exemption under S.60(1)(ccc) CPC is personal to the judgment-debtor and unavailable to legal representatives.
CrPC
Effect of rejection of an application under Section 156(3) CrPC by magistrate
The rejection of an application under Section 156(3) of the Cr.PC, being an order rendered at the threshold without any adjudication on the merits after trial, cannot be accorded such finality as would attract the doctrine of res judicata so as to bar the subsequent registration of an FIR or the continuation of criminal proceedings founded upon the same or substantially similar allegations.
Prevention of Corruption
Recovery of bribed currency in the absence of proof of prior demand.
The Supreme Court held that where the prosecution fails to prove the initial demand for bribe beyond reasonable doubt, mere recovery of currency from the accused cannot sustain conviction or trigger the presumption under S.20 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Criminal Law
Effect of Section 12 of the Gangsters Act on other criminal proceedings
Section 12 of the Gangsters Act requires the Gangsters Act trial to receive preference only where there is a clash of dates. It does not mandate keeping other criminal proceedings in abeyance until conclusion of the Gangsters Act trial.
Criminal liability arising from termination of a contract.
Where a contracting party brings the contract to an end in the manner the contract permits, the remedy of the other party, if the termination is wrongful, is to claim damages. To convert that into the offence of cheating, the information would have to allege facts showing that the termination was the culmination of a design formed at the outset.
Evidentiary value of official records produced from the inception of investigation.
Where the material in question is an official record maintained in the ordinary course of duty by a wing of the Armed Forces of the Union, is placed on record from the earliest stage of investigation itself, and has never been impugned as forged, fabricated, or otherwise unreliable by the prosecution at any stage including before the IO, who himself acknowledged that evidence emerged that appellant was on his duty at the time of the incident such material partakes of the character of unimpeachable material.
Conviction based solely on eyewitness testimony.
When there is a direct evidence in the form of a sole eyewitness testimony, there exists no legal impediment on convicting solely on the basis of that since what matters is the quality and not the quantity of the witnesses.
Reliability of sole eyewitness testimony.
The eyewitness testimony alone resulted in the conviction of the accused, which is not impermissible, but only when the testimony is believable, credible, consistent with the other circumstances and inspires the confidence of the Court and not when there are serious discrepancies raising a reasonable doubt as to the witnessing of the incident.
Election Law
Institutional safeguards for free and fair elections.
Maintaining free and fair elections requires effective institutional measures against the use of black money and electoral offences. Supreme Court issued binding directions to the Election Commission, investigating agencies, courts and State Governments within the constitutional framework governing elections.
NDPS
Application of Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
The twin conditions prescribed under Section 37 of the NDPS Act must be independently satisfied before bail can be granted in cases involving commercial quantities.
Service Law
Applicability of Sixth Pay Commission scales to re-employed Presiding Officers of CGIT-cum-LCs.
The re-employed officers/persons after the retirement, when re-employed again, stand belong to a separate class. Their claim to avail the 6th Pay Commission pay scales has no basis to assert on the footing of Fundamental Rights or on any other grounds. Grouping them separately with those regularly working and equating them with District Judiciary cannot be said to offend either the tenets of Article 14 or the requisites of Article 16 of the Constitution.
Compassionate Appointment – Employer's Delay
A dependent who was within the prescribed age when the compassionate-appointment process commenced cannot be rendered ineligible merely because the employer delayed processing the claim; the employer cannot take advantage of its own delay.
Suppression of Criminal Antecedents in Employment
A candidate cannot be held guilty of suppression of a criminal antecedent unknown to him, and termination on that ground requires both proof of actual suppression and a reasoned assessment of whether the antecedent warrants termination in the circumstances of the case.
Property Law
Landlord-Tenant Relationship –Effect of an agreement to sell executed between landlord and tenant.
the mere execution of an agreement to sell between a landlord and tenant does not ipso facto bring about a determination of the subsisting tenancy.
Civil court jurisdiction over property disputes involving non-tribal parties in Scheduled Areas.
Civil Courts have jurisdiction over civil disputes relating to property in Scheduled Areas where all parties are non-tribals; Nagarjuna Gramin Bank v. Medi Narayana is not a binding precedent on this issue.
Effect of non-payment of balance sale consideration after execution of a registered sale deed.
The sale deed executed with full knowledge of the part consideration alone having been passed, cannot be rendered void or inoperative merely because the balance consideration promised to be paid, which promise was incorporated in the sale deed, had not been complied with. The right of the plaintiffs was to file for recovery of balance sale consideration and not to seek declaration that the sale deeds were null and void; which they are not.
Environmental Law
Environmental Protection – Jojari–Bandi–Luni River System
The Supreme Court directed a coordinated institutional framework for restoration of the Jojari–Bandi–Luni river ecosystem, strengthened environmental enforcement, and ordered constitution of an Integrated Coordination Group and River Commission for Rajasthan.
Evidence
Documentary Evidence –Effect of marking a document as an exhibit.
Mere admission of a document in evidence does not amount to its proof. In other words, mere marking of exhibit on a document does not dispense with its proof, which is required to be done in accordance with law.
Motor Vehicles
Assessment of Compensation for Children with Catastrophic Permanent Disability
In claims involving children suffering catastrophic permanent disability, "just compensation" under the Motor Vehicles Act must be realistic, humane, and account for the lifelong impact of the disability; functional disability, rather than merely medical disability, governs assessment of future loss.
CPC
Order XVIII Rule 17 CPC – Recall of Witnesses
Order XVIII Rule 17 CPC cannot be used by a party to reopen evidence or recall witnesses to fill gaps, omissions, lacunae, or improve its case after closure of evidence.
Suit and Counterclaim – Appeal against a common judgment deciding a suit and counterclaim.
A suit and a counterclaim, if adjudicated by a single common judgment; both on the original claim and on the counterclaim, it can be challenged in a composite appeal. The composite appeal, however, should show the grounds raised against the decree in the suit and the decree in the counterclaim separately; whether there are two decrees or one drawn up. The composite appeal should also be valued as two separate appeals and the court fees paid accordingly.
Banking & Finance
NI Act – Admission of Cheque Execution
Admission of execution of a cheque attracts the mandatory presumptions under S.118 and S.139 NI Act, which can be displaced only by cogent rebuttal evidence; a High Court exercising revisional jurisdiction cannot overturn concurrent findings by reappreciating evidence unless the findings are perverse or legally unsustainable.
