(341) CEMENT CORPORATION OF INDIA Vs. ICICI LOMBARD GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Insurance Law — Fire Insurance Policy — Scope of Coverage — Proximate Cause — Repudiation of Claim — Loss occasioned by fire following an attempted theft/burglary — Policy covered 'Fire' as a specified peril with limited exclusions which did not include theft/burglary preceding the fire — Insurer denied claim arguing that the proximate cause was theft/burglary, which was excluded under the Riots Strike and Malicious Damages (RSMD) clause — Held: Once the loss is caused India Law Library Docid # 2436963
(342) JAYANTIBHAI CHATURBHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Section 376(2)(d) — Rape — Appreciation of Evidence — Conviction solely based on First Information Report (FIR) or previous statements of hostile witnesses — Admissibility and reliability — Victim (PW-1) and her husband (PW-2) turned hostile and did not support the prosecution case during trial — Court should be slow to act on the testimony of hostile witness and normally India Law Library Docid # 2436964
(343) RAJ PAL SINGH Vs. RAJVEER AND OTHERS[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Section 302 read with Section 34 — Murder — Appeal against acquittal — Powers of Appellate Court — Reversal of acquittal — Principles — The guilt of the accused must be established beyond reasonable doubt (must or should, not may be) — Once an accused is acquitted, the presumption of innocence is reinforced — Interference by the appellate court must be minimal and guided by "substantial and compelling reasons" — Reversal should not occur merely because India Law Library Docid # 2436965
(344) R. ASHOKA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA AND OTHERS[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Section 482 — Inherent powers of High Court to quash FIR — Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 — Allegations against former Minister (Chairman of Regularisation Committee) regarding illegal land allotments to non-eligible persons — Principles for quashing FIR reiterated, including where institution and continuance of proceedings amount to abuse of process of court or securing ends of justice, or where proceedings are manifestly India Law Library Docid # 2436966
(345) TAMIL NADU GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION CORPORATION LTD. Vs. M/s PENNA ELECTRICITY LIMITED[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Electricity Law — Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) — Commercial Operation Date (COD) — Firm Power vs. Infirm Power — Payment of Fixed Charges — Applicability of Regulations — Dispute regarding whether power supplied by generating company (respondent) to distribution licensee (appellant) during the relevant period (29.10.2005 to 30.06.2006) should be treated as "firm power" entitling the respondent to fixed charges, or "infirm power" entitling only variable charges — India Law Library Docid # 2436967
(346) MARAM NIRMALA AND ANOTHER Vs. THE STATE OF TELANGANA AND ANOTHER[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Section 482 — Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Section 498-A, 323, 504 — Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 (DP Act) — Section 3, 4 — Quashing of criminal proceedings — Cruelty and Dowry Demand — Vague and omnibus allegations — Scope — Where allegations against in-laws (mother-in-law and father-in-law) are vague and omnibus, lacking specific instances India Law Library Docid # 2437495
(347) KANUMURU RAGHU RAMA KRISHNA RAJU Vs. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA AND OTHERS[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — Master Directions on Frauds — Classification of Borrower Account as Fraud (Clause 8.12.1) — Principles of Natural Justice — Show-cause notice — Deeming an account as ‘fraud’ under Clause 8.12.1 and consequently debarring the borrower from institutional finance amounts to blacklisting and results in serious penal and civil consequences — Classification as fraud without issuance of India Law Library Docid # 2437497
(348) CHANDRASHEKAR C Vs. THE STATE OF KARNATAKA AND ANOTHER[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Quashing of Criminal Proceedings — Grounds for quashing — Allegations of cheating and forgery in land transactions — Appellant (A-22) purchased land via registered sale deed and rectification deed — Complainant (seller/2nd respondent) alleged deeds were forged and consideration syphoned off — Investigation Report confirmed complainant admitted executing and signing both Sale Deed and India Law Library Docid # 2437499
(349) REKHA K.C. Vs. JYOTHIBAI AND ANOTHER[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Section 439 — Bail — Grant of bail by High Court — Requirement of reasons — Bail granted primarily on grounds including accused being a lady aged 41 years, eleven months in custody, no prior criminal antecedents, and having an unmarried daughter, while noting absence of eye-witness to the incident inside the house and existence of case and counter-case — India Law Library Docid # 2437504
(350) THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, REP. BY ITS COMMISSIONER NANDYAL MUNICIPALITY, KURNOOL DISTRICT, A.P. AND OTHERS Vs. K. JAYARAM AND OTHERS ETC. ETC.[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 16-12-2025 Service Law — Contractual Employment — Claim for Minimum Time Scale of Pay — Employees engaged by Municipal Council through a third-party contractor (not directly) and continued working despite change of contractors — High Court directing Municipality to grant minimum time scale of pay and annual grade increments to such contract workers — Supreme Court holds that the relationship between the Municipality (principal) and the workers was indirect, through the India Law Library Docid # 2438130
(351) STATE OF U.P. Vs. AJMAL BEG ETC[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) — Section 304-B and 498-A) — Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 (DPA, 1961) — Sections 3 and 4 — Dowry Death — Appeal against acquittal — Setting aside High Court's acquittal and restoring Trial Court's conviction — Essential ingredients of Section 304-B IPC established by consistent prosecution evidence regarding dowry demand (motorcycle, TV, and cash) and continuous India Law Library Docid # 2436870
(352) THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH THROUGH PRINCIPAL SECRETARY AND OTHERS Vs. MILKIYAT SINGH AND OTHERS ETC.[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 — Section 103 — Cooperative societies functioning immediately before reorganisation of States — Object and scope of ‘deemed conversion’ — Section 103 does not automatically convert a cooperative society registered under a State Act into a multi-State cooperative society merely due to State reorganisation (e.g., bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh into Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) — The conversion under Section 103 depends on whether the 'objects' India Law Library Docid # 2436871
(353) MANOJBHAI JETHABHAI PARMAR (ROHIT) Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Criminal Law — Conviction based on Circumstantial Evidence — Appreciation of Evidence — Principles Governing Circumstantial Evidence — A conviction based entirely on circumstantial evidence must satisfy five conditions: (1) Circumstances must be fully established; (2) Facts established must be consistent only with the hypothesis of guilt; (3) Circumstances must be conclusive in nature and tendency; (4) They must exclude every possible hypothesis except guilt; (5) Chain of evidence must India Law Library Docid # 2436872
(354) MOIDEENKUTTY Vs. ABRAHAM GEORGE[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Agreement to Sell — Breach of Contract — Refund of Advance — Suppression of Material Fact — Reversal of Trial Court decree by High Court — High Court relying solely on a fleeting admission in cross-examination of plaintiff regarding prior knowledge (August 25, 2008) of mortgage on property, despite agreement being executed later (September 10, 2008) and parties admitting to no prior interaction before September 2008 — Supreme Court held reliance on such solitary, abstract India Law Library Docid # 2436873
(355) DANESH SINGH AND OTHERS Vs. HAR PYARI (DEAD) THR. LRS. AND OTHERS[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Transfer of Property Act, 1882 — Section 52 — Doctrine of Lis Pendens — Scope and Applicability — Transfer of mortgaged property pendente lite (after institution of suit by bank for recovery/foreclosure but before execution/attachment) is hit by Section 52 — Lack of knowledge of proceedings or possession of No Encumbrance Certificate does not constitute a valid defence against lis pendens, as the doctrine is India Law Library Docid # 2436874
(356) DIRECTOR OF INCOME TAX (IT)-I, MUMBAI. Vs. M/S. AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK LTD.[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Income Tax Act, 1961 — Sections 37(1), 44C — Deduction of Head Office Expenditure in case of Non-Residents — Interpretation of Section 44C and 'Head Office Expenditure' — Distinction between ‘Common’ and ‘Exclusive’ Expenditure — Section 44C, being a special provision with a non-obstante clause, governs the quantum of allowable deduction for any expenditure incurred by a non-resident assessee that qualifies as 'head office expenditure' — The definition of 'head office India Law Library Docid # 2436875
(357) NAYAN BHOWMICK Vs. APARNA CHAKRABORTY[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 — Sections 13(1)(i-a) and 13(1)(i-b) — Divorce — Desertion and Cruelty — Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage — Where parties have been living separately for a long period (24 years in this case) without any prospect of reconciliation, this long period of separation amounts to mental cruelty to both parties, justifying dissolution of marriage — The marriage is deemed to have broken down irretrievably — Fact that spouses hold strongly views and refuse to accommodate India Law Library Docid # 2436876
(358) M/S NATIONAL INSURANCE CO. LTD. Vs. NEERU DEVI AND OTHERS[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Compensation — Assessment of income of deceased — Standard of proof — Where claimants assert a high monthly income (Rs. 95,000/-) for the deceased (a transport contractor owning two trucks), which exceeds the taxable limit, failure to produce Income Tax Returns (ITR) is highly relevant and undermines the claim — The contention that high EMI payments (approx. Rs. India Law Library Docid # 2436877
(359) DEVENDRA KUMAR TRIPATHI AND OTHERS Vs. THE ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LTD. AND ANOTHER[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 — Compensation for Death of a Child — Calculation of Compensation — Deceased 14-year-old schoolboy — Principles adopted for calculating compensation for death of child — Notional monthly income adopted based on Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for a Class B city (Rs. 5400/- per month) — Addition of 40% for future prospects — Multiplier of 15 adopted based on Reshma India Law Library Docid # 2436878
(360) PUNEET BHASIN Vs. YES BANK LIMITED AND ANOTHER[SUPREME COURT OF INDIA] 15-12-2025 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Investigation — Stay of Investigation — High Court's jurisdiction — The High Court must be mindful and follow the standards set by the Supreme Court (referencing Niharika Infrastructure Private Limited v. State of Maharashtra) when granting a blanket stay of investigation — Granting interim relief which amounts to a stay of the investigation without recording reasons, particularly when an earlier detailed interim order regulating the investigation was in pl India Law Library Docid # 2437398