Landmark Judgments

464 Supreme Court judgments from 1950 to 2026, chosen from the cases our judiciary, CLAT and AIBE questions cite most. Each digest gives the facts, the questions before the Court, what it held and passages in the Court's own words, with a link to the official judgment.

Judgments: 464
Constitution Benches: 139
Subjects: 27

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Subject

Decided in

BenchAct interpretedMy listOverruled or explained by a later case here

16 of 464 judgments

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India v. Polimer Cable Network2026Administrative Law2 judges
TRAI's direction to an MSO to comply with the Interconnection Regulations, and its show cause notice proposing a complaint under Section 34 of the TRAI Act, are…
Sethi Auto Service Station v. Delhi Development Authority2008Administrative Law2 judges
Favourable file notings and committee recommendations confer no right until the competent authority decides and communicates the decision, and the DDA's refusal of…
Ram Pravesh Singh v. State of Bihar2006Administrative Law2 judges
The Court held that employees of a co-operative electricity society whose licence was revoked had no contractual, statutory or equitable right, including by legitimate…
Om Kumar v. Union of India2000Administrative Law2 judges
Where a disciplinary punishment is challenged as arbitrary under Article 14, courts review it only on Wednesbury principles as secondary reviewers, not on…
Sarwan Singh Lamba v. Union of India1995Administrative Law5-judge bench
The Court held that the direction in S.P. Sampath Kumar to select tribunal members through a High Powered Selection Committee was advisory, upheld the appointments to…
Union of India v. Hindustan Development Corporation1993Administrative Law2 judges
Legitimate expectation is not a legal right; it mainly entitles a person to fair consideration or a hearing and yields to overriding public interest and policy. The…
Food Corporation of India v. Kamdhenu Cattle Feed Industries1992Administrative Law3 judges
The State and its instrumentalities must act non-arbitrarily under Article 14 even in contractual matters; rejecting the highest tender for a significantly higher bid…
S.N. Mukherjee v. Union of India1990Administrative Law5-judge bench
An administrative authority exercising quasi-judicial functions must record reasons unless the requirement is excluded expressly or by necessary implication, but the…
Swadeshi Cotton Mills v. Union of India1981Administrative Law3 judges
Section 18AA of the IDR Act does not universally exclude a pre-decisional hearing before a takeover; since none was given though one was practicable, the Court, on the…
S.L. Kapoor v. Jagmohan1980Administrative Law3 judges
The supersession of the New Delhi Municipal Committee under Section 238(1) of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 without notice or opportunity to answer the allegations was…
Atlas Cycle Industries Ltd. v. State of Haryana1978Administrative Law3 judges
The requirement in Section 3(6) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 that orders be laid before Parliament 'as soon as may be' is directory. Failure to lay the price…
Mohinder Singh Gill v. Chief Election Commissioner1977Administrative Law5-judge benchLater case in library
The Court held that a writ petition under Article 226 challenging the Election Commission's cancellation of a poll and order for a fresh poll was barred by Article…
Jasbhai Motibhai Desai v. Roshan Kumar1975Administrative Law4 judges
A rival cinema owner who suffers only loss from lawful competition is not a 'person aggrieved' and has no locus standi to seek certiorari under Article 226 against a…
A.K. Kraipak v. Union of India1969Administrative Law
The Court set aside selections to the Indian Forest Service from Jammu and Kashmir because the Acting Chief Conservator, himself a candidate, sat on the Selection Board,…
Sardar Inder Singh v. State of Rajasthan1957Administrative Law5-judge bench
A provision letting the Rajpramukh extend, by notification, the life of the Rajasthan (Protection of Tenants) Ordinance, 1949 was conditional, not delegated, legislation…
Manak Lal v. Dr. Prem Chand Singhvi1957Administrative Law3 judges
A Bar Council tribunal chaired by a lawyer who had appeared for the complainant was improperly constituted, since the test is reasonable apprehension of bias; but the…

How these pages are written

Every digest is written from the judgment itself, taken from the Supreme Court's own website (sci.gov.in), and links to that file.
Quoted passages are copied from the official text and were checked against it word for word; each gives the page of the PDF.
Where the bench split, the holdings given are the majority's. Where a later judgment in this library overrules or explains a case, that case's page says so, quoting the later Court's words.
A digest is a study aid. Read the judgment before citing it.

Test yourself

170 practice questions on landmark judgments, with explanations.

All 464 judgments, A to Z