M M SUNDRESH

Mata Prasad, convicted of murder and related offences and sentenced to life imprisonment, filed a writ petition under Article 32 seeking premature release under the Uttar Pradesh Governor's 2018 policy for Republic Day releases. Although he satisfied the 2018 criteria, his application was rejected, and the State cited …

C.K. Karunakar, an employee of State Bank of India, was interviewed for promotion in 1984. While the promotion process was pending, disciplinary proceedings were initiated, leading to a charge‑sheet and a penalty of censure in 1987, with the appeal dismissed in 1988. The promoting authority had placed his promotion rec…

The appellant was convicted of murder under Section 302 IPC based on a dying declaration, eyewitness testimony, and the recovery of a weapon, despite serious irregularities in the investigation. The Supreme Court examined the purpose of criminal investigation, the role of the investigating officer, and the interplay be…

The case concerned two acres of land that had been granted free of cost to a member of the Adi Karnataka Scheduled Caste in 1941. The grantee’s grandson (respondent No.4) claimed that the subsequent sale of the land to the appellant in 1971 violated Rule 43(8) of the Mysore Land Revenue Code and the Karnataka Scheduled…

The Reserve Bank of India issued Master Directions on Frauds to enable banks to detect and report fraudulent accounts, leading the appellant banks to declare the respondents' accounts fraudulent (an administrative action) and to refer the matter to the CBI, resulting in FIRs and criminal proceedings. The High Courts qu…

On 11 September 2010, Sub‑Inspector K.S. Singh, acting on information, apprehended Dayalu Kashyap who was carrying ganja in a green polythene bag on a wooden kanwad. The officer served a notice under Section 50 of the NDPS Act, offering Kashyap the choice of being searched by a gazetted officer, a magistrate, or the of…

The appellant Mukesh Singh was convicted of murder, robbery and related offences based primarily on the identification of the injured eyewitness Sushil Kumar, who identified him in court after the accused had refused to attend a test identification parade (TIP). The accused argued that his refusal to participate in the…

The appellant, a landlord, sought eviction of a tenant who had occupied a cinema building in Allahabad since 1952 under a ten‑year lease that had long expired. The Prescribed Authority had allowed eviction on the ground of bona‑fide need, noting the landlord's limited income, his crippled son’s dependence, and the tena…

The dispute arose from a Coal India notification dated 19‑12‑2017 imposing Evacuation Facility Charges (EFC) on coal dispatches, which the power generator (Adani Power Rajasthan Ltd.) claimed constituted a "change in law" under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Rajasthan distribution companies. The generator …

The appellant, a Muslim member of the Manipur Bar Council, was appointed to the State Waqf Board under Section 14(1)(b)(iii) of the Wakf Act, 1995. After a former board member (respondent No.3) lost his Bar Council seat, he challenged the appointment, arguing that Explanation II to Section 14(1)(b) only applies to MPs …

The appellant, Mumtaz Yarud Dowla Wakf, owned a property that was leased to the respondent hotel for 33 years, which expired in 1999. After the lease ended, the appellant sued the respondents before the Wakf Tribunal for ejectment and possession, obtaining a decree in 2002. During execution of the decree, the responden…

The appellant, a Jharkhand MLA, was charged with accepting a bribe to vote for a candidate in a Rajya Sabha election, but she did not cast the alleged bribe‑influenced vote. She sought quashing of the criminal proceedings on the ground of immunity under Article 194(2) of the Constitution. The High Court rejected the pl…

The case concerned compensation disputes arising from the erection of transmission towers and power lines under a 400 kV project that traversed four districts in Haryana. Landowners claimed that the compensation awarded by the District Judges and upheld by the High Court was inadequate, while the contractor sought to l…

The Supreme Court examined a partition suit concerning agricultural lands of the late Muthusamy Gounder, where the trial and high courts had rejected the claim of certain parties as coparceners on the ground that the marriage of their mother to the propositus was not proved. The appellants argued that, despite the alle…

The plaintiff, Mohd. Abdul Qasim, claimed title over 106.34 acres of land that had been declared a reserved forest under the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967. He filed a suit for declaration of title and permanent injunction, but the trial court and the High Court found that the land was forest land and that he had fail…

The case arose from a POCSO trial in which the Special Judge conducted the proceedings in extreme haste, denying the accused the opportunity to consult counsel, receive documents, and present a defence, and ultimately imposing a death sentence that was set aside by the Patna High Court and a de novo trial ordered. The …

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigated a terrorist plot in Jammu & Kashmir and filed a chargesheet on 25 September 2019 under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1989. The Special Judge, NIA, refused to take cognizance of the conspiracy charge under Section 120‑B of the Ranbir Penal Code because the req…

The State of Haryana filed an application seeking modification of a Supreme Court order that required police to serve notices under Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, only through the mode prescribed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and not via electronic means such as WhatsApp. …

The dispute concerned the eligibility of Dinesh Singh for inclusion in Register A‑1 of the Haryana Civil Service (Executive Branch) under Rule 9 of the 2008 Rules. The State argued that the cut‑off date of 1 November 2018 applied uniformly to all eligibility criteria, including the condition that a candidate must not b…

The appellant A-4, a young woman engaged to B.V. Girish, was unwilling to marry him and confided her grievance to friend A-1, who enlisted cousin A-3 and A-2 to murder the fiancé. The deceased was fatally injured with a steel rod on 3 December 2003; eyewitnesses were later discredited and the case hinged on circumstant…

The Supreme Court heard applications arising from the long‑standing illegal mining controversy in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka. The petitioners sought directions for demarcating seven mining leases that straddle the Karnataka‑Andhra Pradesh boundary, for the implementation of Reclamation and R…

The appellant was charged with murder, attempt to rape and related offences after the deceased was found dead in a pool of blood. The trial court acquitted him, finding the prosecution's key witness (PW1) unreliable and noting the non‑examination of material witnesses and the absence of a fingerprint report. The High C…

The Supreme Court reviewed the compliance report filed by an amicus curiae regarding the implementation of its earlier directions in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI. It examined whether States, Union Territories, the CBI, and High Courts had adhered to specific directives concerning Sections 41, 41A, 438, 440, 88, 170, 204…

The Paradip Port Authority (formerly Paradip Port Trust) and Paradeep Phosphates Ltd. entered into a 1985 agreement for a captive berth, with tariff rates subject to periodic revision. Dispute arose when the Authority unilaterally increased rates in 1993, leading to arbitration, an appellate authority order, and a High…

Four persons were tried for the killing of Akbar on 9 January 1999. The trial court convicted A1, A2 and A3 under sections 302 and 323 read with section 34 of the IPC, while acquitting them of section 325, and later the High Court altered the convictions, acquitting A1 of 302/34 and A2 of 302/34 but upholding A2's conv…

The Supreme Court examined whether the State of Karnataka and its agencies wilfully disobeyed its earlier orders dated 21‑11‑2014, 17‑05‑2022 and 19‑03‑2024 directing the issuance of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) for land acquired for road widening. The petitioners alleged that the respondents delayed and altere…

The respondents challenged a batch of FIRs registered between 2016 and 2020 at the Anti‑Corruption Bureau’s Central Investigation Unit in Vijayawada, alleging that the office had not been notified as a police station under Section 2(s) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and therefore lacked jurisdiction. The High Court …

The appellant, Gurwinder Singh, was arrested along with co‑accused for alleged involvement in a terrorist module of the banned organization ‘Sikhs for Justice’, including raising funds, conspiracy and attempts to procure weapons. The investigation, taken over by the NIA, resulted in charges under the UAPA, IPC and Arms…

The appellant, convicted of culpable homicide amounting to murder for a 1994 incident, claimed he was a minor at the time of the offence, asserting a plea of juvenility under s.9(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Despite earlier courts treating him as an adult based on a bank‑accou…

The case concerns the murder of a ten‑year‑old boy, Muntiyaz Ali, whose body was found on 6 June 2007. The appellants Nazim, Aftab and Arman were convicted under Sections 302, 201 and 120‑B IPC based largely on the testimony of three prosecution witnesses and circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court examined whether …

The appellant was arrested at a bus stand after police received a tip that he was carrying charas. He consented to be searched by the police, and during the search of his bag, 1.25 kg of charas was recovered. The trial court acquitted him, holding that Section 50 of the NDPS Act, which mandates informing the suspect of…

Nav Nirman Builders & Developers Pvt. Ltd. (appellant) had two parcels of land provisionally attached under the Prevention of Money‑Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and a confirmation order under s.8(3) was challenged before the Appellate Tribunal under s.26. While the appeal was pending, the Enforcement Directorate filed a…

The State of West Bengal sought to overturn a High Court order that allowed Jai Hind Pvt. Ltd. to retain about 211 acres of land under Section 6(1)(j) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953. The company had previously been denied the benefit because it failed to prove it was exclusively engaged in agricultura…

The appellant challenged the validity of a preventive detention order issued under Section 3 of the COFEPOSA Act against the detenue, alleging that the authorities failed to serve the grounds of detention and did not inform him of his right to make a representation as mandated by Article 22(5) of the Constitution. The …