A D KOSHAL

The respondent was convicted under Section 135 of the Customs Act and the Defence of India Rules for smuggling 2015 tolas of contraband gold, receiving rigorous imprisonment and fines. On remand, the Bombay High Court granted him the benefit of Section 4 of the Probation of Offenders Act, citing confiscation of the gol…

The appellant, Pandurang Jivajirao Apte, was the garnishee of property attached before judgment in a suit filed by the deceased R. G. Ashtakar for recovery of dues. Apte sold the attached property to Madhusudan Vasudeo Bavdekar under Section 176 of the Indian Contract Act after giving notice, but the sale proceeds were…

The State of Madhya Pradesh sought to appeal an acquittal under section 378(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and filed an application for leave under section 378(3). By prevailing practice in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the leave application was listed before a Single Judge under Rule 1(q) of the High Court …

The State of Punjab sought to acquire nine biswas of land in Morinda for the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to build grain godowns. The respondents challenged the acquisition, arguing that the FCI was not a "company" within section 3(e) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and therefore Chapter VII provisions applicable…

The case concerned a displaced person (Respondent No.3) who, after being allotted more than 60 acres, gifted part of his land to his wife, who subsequently sold it to the appellants. The Special Collector, relying on a rule that post‑Act sales should be included in the landowner's "select area," declared the land as pa…

Uma Charan, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, was promoted to Superintendent under the Indian Police Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955. In September 1963 the Selection Committee, invoking Regulation 5, superseded him and 27 others, stating only that their records were not sufficient to justify appoi…

Express Newspapers Ltd. appealed to the Supreme Court against a judgment of the Madras High Court. The High Court had issued a certificate under Article 133(1)(a) and (c) of the Constitution, but the certificate failed to specify the substantial question of law and gave no reasons for its issuance. The Supreme Court, r…

The plaintiff, a respondent in a suit for pre-emption, claimed he was a tenant of the disputed land at the time it was sold to the appellants in 1967. The appellants contended they had been tenants since 1965 under a lease from the vendor. The revenue records (Jamabandi for 1959‑60 and subsequent Khasra‑Girdawaris) lis…

Harish Pahwa was detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 on 16 May 1980. He filed a representation against his detention on 3 June 1980, which the Uttar Pradesh State Government received on 4 June but failed to decide promptly, finally rejecting it on 24 June…

The appellant challenged the High Court's order that declared sub‑section (5) of section 17 of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961 unconstitutional. The provision allowed persons who were practising Ayurvedic or Unani medicine in the Bombay area on 4 November 1941, but not listed under the Bombay Medical Pr…

In a dispute between Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co. Ltd. and its workmen, two unions – the Telco Union (minority) and the Telco Kamgar Sanghatana (majority) – were involved. A settlement was reached on 7 February 1970 between the company and the Sanghatana and was signed by 564 of the 635 daily‑rated workers. The Te…

The case concerned a sale of a portion of a block of houses in Rae Bareli by Parmeshwar Din Misra (defendant No. 2), who claimed exclusive ownership, to K.C. Kapoor (appellant). The plaintiff‑mother and her two grand‑sons challenged the sale, alleging that the property was joint Hindu family property, that the sale was…

The landlady served a notice on the tenant on 14‑December‑1973 demanding payment of "damages for use and occupation" at a rate equal to the agreed rent, stating that the tenancy had terminated and the tenant had become a statutory tenant. The tenant failed to pay within two months, later sending a money‑order which the…

Ex‑Capt. Ashok Kumar Sawhney was appointed to the Income‑Tax Officer, Class I cadre under the reservation provision of Rule 4(1) for armed‑forces officers, but was placed below respondents 2‑14 who had been appointed to Scheduled‑Caste/Tribe reserved vacancies through a competitive examination. He contended that, under…

Surjeet Singh and Kulwant Singh were detained under the National Security Ordinance and were served the grounds of their detention in English, a language they did not understand. Although a police officer orally explained the contents in Hindi, the Supreme Court held that this did not constitute effective communication…

The State of Rajasthan sought to file an application under CrPC section 378 for leave to appeal an acquittal in a murder case, which was filed by a Deputy Government Advocate (DGA). The Rajasthan High Court held that the DGA lacked locus standi as a Public Prosecutor and dismissed the application. On appeal, the Suprem…

The Industrial Tribunal awarded a decision against Ahmedabad Manufacturing & Calico Printing Co. Ltd., which the company challenged by filing a special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution. The company later withdrew that petition, and four days thereafter filed a writ petition under Article 226 in the …

Akhlsh Prasad, a member of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was charged under IPC sections 307, 326 and 324 for allegedly firing on two persons on 30 May 1978. He sought to quash the proceedings, arguing that the offences were committed while he was acting in the discharge of his official duty as a member of th…

The appellant State of Uttar Pradesh challenged a High Court order that had declared Rules 7A and 7B of the Uttar Pradesh Promotion by Selection in Consultation with Public Service Commission (Procedure) Rules, 1970 ultra vires Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The rules gave preferential treatment to candidates …

The petitioner filed a writ under Article 32 seeking the release of his brother, Narinder Singh, who had been detained under sub‑section (1) of Section 3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974. The only basis for the detention was a case registered for offences under IP…

The State of Maharashtra created the Bombay Rationing Organisation (BRO) by merging staff from the former Controller of Foodgrains Distribution (CFD) with personnel drawn from various sources. In 1968 it issued a government resolution fixing seniority rules (Rule 4(a), (c) and a proviso to Rule 7) that gave released go…

A suit for partition of immovable property filed in 1938 in the Munsiff Court at Parappanangadi resulted in a preliminary decree in 1940 and lay dormant for over two decades. After a 1956 High Court order redefining territorial limits, the property fell under the jurisdiction of the Munsiff Court at Manjeri, where the …

The Supreme Court examined whether Section 4(2) of the Andhra Pradesh Motor Vehicles (Taxation of Passengers and Goods) Act, 1952 empowered the State Government to make rules with retrospective effect. The State had deleted certain sub‑rules, making the deletion operative from a date earlier than its enactment, and sou…

The appellant, a medical graduate with an MBBS from Rajasthan University and an MD in Forensic Medicine from the University of Bihar, applied for a lecturer position in Forensic Medicine under the Rajasthan Medical Service (Collegiate Branch) Rules. The Rajasthan Public Service Commission rejected his application, stat…

Wing Commander J. Kumar, an Air Force officer permanently seconded to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1971, challenged Rule 16 (promulgated in 1979 under Article 309) which fixed seniority of permanently seconded officers based on the date they attained the substantive rank of Major/equivale…

The appellant, Thakur Narain Singh, sought compensation for the resumption of his father's jagir under the Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act, 1952. The key dispute was whether the jagir should be classified as a "settled" village, allowing compensation based on rent rates fixed in the 1953 settlement,…

The respondent, Mohd. Ashrafuddin, owned agricultural land in Andhra Pradesh and transferred portions of it to others under unregistered sale deeds and a gift deed, but omitted these transfers in his declaration under the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973. The Land Reforms Tribuna…

The appellant, a tenant, occupied a shop on 16 June 1967. The landlord sought eviction, arguing that the U.P. Urban Buildings (Regulation of Letting, Rent and Eviction) Act, 1972 did not apply because the building was within the ten‑year exemption period. The lower courts held that the date of completion of the buildin…

The Supreme Court considered an appeal by Chhanganlal Mansukhlal challenging the applicability of fee provisions under Rule 49 of the Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets Rules, 1965. The dispute centered on whether fees are payable when agricultural produce is brought into a market area for industrial use or export, h…

Gokul Parashram Patil stabbed Anita with a single blow above the left clavicle, causing a muscle‑deep wound that inadvertently cut the superior vena cava, an injury sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death. The trial court and the Bombay High Court convicted him of murder under section 302 of the Indi…

The appellant, a practising advocate, certified the solvency of a surety for his client in a bailable offence, violating Rule 10 of the Bar Council of India’s professional conduct rules. The Disciplinary Tribunal of the Bar Council suspended him for one month, and his appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed by the Tr…

The Supreme Court examined the constitutional validity of the second proviso to clause 11(1) of the Punjab Foodgrains Dealers Licensing and Price Control Order, 1978 (as amended 1980), which allows the licensing authority to suspend a foodgrains dealer’s licence for up to ninety days without giving the dealer a reasona…

The plaintiff, a religious institution holding the inam village of Orma, sued the State of Gujarat in a civil suit claiming that the land was a devasthan (religious) inam and therefore exempt from the abolition provisions of the Bombay Personal Inams Abolition Act, 1952. The State contended that the land was a personal…

Syed Israr Masood, a forest contractor, won an auction for two forest coupes in August 1960, paying an earnest money and the first instalment. Upon inspecting the coupes he discovered that the quantity and quality of timber were far less than advertised, and a substantial portion of the marked trees had been later decl…

The Supreme Court considered a civil appeal filed by the State of Gujarat against S.M. Baquir, wherein the sole respondent died on 10 December 1978. The Court held that the right to sue survived in the deceased's legal representatives, but under Order XLXI of the CPC and Article 121 of the Limitation Act, an applicatio…