Judgment Bytes

Nine judges, six opinions and an operative order of four clauses. What the Supreme Court held on 24 August 2017, the case it overruled that the order never names, the two different tests it left behind for limiting the right, and the five claims about this judgment that will cost you marks.

A two-Judge Bench has restated the rule aspirants most often invert: a Supreme Court decision reaches backwards unless the Court expressly confines it to the future, and a later status quo order will not do the job. The pleading point that actually decided the case is the bonus.

Two courts convicted three men of a child’s murder on circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court acquitted them in 2025: names missing from the FIR, a conspiracy disclosed only at trial, no identification parade, a wide last seen gap and a neutral forensic report. Full judgment attached.

The Supreme Court has set aside two anticipatory bails granted by the Patna High Court in a contract killing, and used the occasion to say three things every criminal lawyer should know: there is no parity with regular bail, the Sessions Court should usually be approached first, and the complainant must be heard.

The Supreme Court has restored the presumptions under Sections 118 and 139, set aside the view that a cash loan above ₹20,000 is unenforceable, and cut compounding costs to nil, 5, 7.5 or 10 per cent. Twelve directions change how every cheque case now runs. Full judgment attached.

The Supreme Court refused to stay the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, then stayed three parts of it: the five-year practice requirement, the Section 3C inquiry into government property, and the number of non-Muslim members on the Council and the Boards. What it means, and what is still open. Full order attached.

The Supreme Court ordered every stray dog in Delhi-NCR into shelters, with no release. Eleven days later a larger Bench restored release after sterilisation, keeping rabid and aggressive dogs confined. Here is the order, what changed, and how it is asked in AIBE and judiciary papers. Full text attached.