The Supreme Court set aside the Patna High Court's grant of anticipatory and regular bail to three men accused of a murder during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as the High Court ignored police video footage placing them at the scene and the statements of witnesses who identified them from it. Merely recording submissions without independent reasons is not a proper approach to bail; the pleas go back, with interim bail continuing (paras 7-11).
The Supreme Court upheld the cancellation of a 2011 ryotwari patta for 0.72 acres in Survey No. 572, Thirumullaivoyal, recorded since 1911 as a Government poramboke tank: Section 14-A of the Tamil Nadu Estates Abolition Act bars pattas for non-ryoti land, and a residential zoning plan cannot override it. As official approvals misled 20 flat buyers, the State must give them an alternative site before demolishing their flats (paras 19, 21, 24, 26-27).
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of an original allottee's heirs who sued in 1975 for Plot No. 8, Friends Colony, New Delhi, which the society sold in 1960 to the man the allottee had himself asked it to transfer the plot to in 1954. The suit was time-barred, an agreement to sell confers no title, possession could not be sought without challenging the registered sale deed, and estoppel barred the claim (para 68).
The Supreme Court held that an auction of public land creates no enforceable contract until the conveyance deed is executed, so the Chandigarh Administration could cancel Bedi Hospital's Rs.12.58 crore winning bid for a nursing home site after the identical adjacent site fetched Rs.18.25 crore. It set aside the High Court's order reviving the bid but, because the High Court's interim order had muddled matters, directed a fresh e-auction within three months (paras 19-20, 24, 27-28).
The Supreme Court found that a man accused of a Rs.43 crore fake-invoice GST fraud abused the process by seeking bail in the Sessions Court and release in a writ petition while his High Court bail plea was pending, and by getting it listed in the vacation without disclosing the writ court's refusal. He stays on interim bail, but the plea goes back to the High Court; "two weeks hence" should ordinarily exclude a vacation (paras 25-27, 29-30, 34).
The Supreme Court held that a Division Bench hearing an intra-court appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent cannot overturn a single judge's just and reasonable writ decision merely on a different view; the findings must be demonstrably erroneous. It restored the order setting aside a Periyar University Deputy Registrar's removal, as the inquiry findings rested on conjecture, not evidence (paras 20, 29-30).
The Supreme Court declared void a 2017 gift of temple inam land at Kodumudi, Erode, made by a temporary trustee to the Tamil Nadu Government for a Taluk Office. Section 41 of the 1959 Endowments Act allows no sanction of a gift of inam land, and the State is a custodian, not an owner. The office building stays on lease, at rent raised to Rs.31,000 a month from 2019, with Rs.1 lakh costs (paras 30-31, 34, 38, 41).
The Supreme Court held that a private person may file a complaint under Section 200 CrPC alleging that a candidate gave false information in a nomination affidavit, an offence under Section 125-A of the Representation of the People Act, because Section 195 CrPC does not cover that offence. It corrected the Karnataka High Court's contrary view but left the quashing of the complaint against a Bidar MLA undisturbed, as a conviction was remote (paras 5, 11, 13-14).
The Supreme Court granted regular bail to Mahesh Chandra Joshi and Mukesh Pathak in the Rajasthan ACB case over forged IRCON certificates allegedly used to win Jal Jeevan Mission tenders worth Rs.979.45 crore. Calling the allegations grave, it held that gravity alone cannot justify indefinite pre-trial detention where investigation against them is complete, the evidence is documentary, both are on bail in connected cases and a long trial lies ahead (paras 9-11).
The Supreme Court held that Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which requires prior approval before police investigate a public servant, does not apply to an allegation of demanding a bribe, because that is not a recommendation or decision taken in discharge of official duties. It upheld the charge under Section 7 against a Rajasthan police constable and held that the timing of the Section 19 sanction, granted before cognizance, was at most an irregularity (paras 6.1-6.3, 8).
Two years after its Just Rights judgment, the Supreme Court found 'no progress worth the name' in curbing child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) online and laid down a framework: a National Hash & URL List Database, immediate removal of known material, reporting within two hours, trained grievance officers, forfeiture of paywall revenue and exemplary fines. It also held internet access a fundamental right (paras 11, 292, 316).
The Supreme Court raised compensation for two men hurt in a 2016 scooter accident in Kerala, holding that functional disability, not the medical board's percentage, decides loss of earning capacity. The pillion rider, certified at 75.5% but needing lifelong care, was treated as 100% disabled and gets Rs.77.84 lakh; the 22-year-old rider, certified at 62%, was treated as 80% disabled and gets Rs.69.61 lakh (paras 5.1.3, 5.5, 6.2.1, 6.7).