https://valkya.org/editorial/ The Valkya Editorial covers the developments that change how lawyers practise: weekly roundups of judgments, amendments and notifications, and close digests of the landmark decisions shaping Indian law. en-IN Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://valkya.org/editorial/asd-v-lcsibd-wife-career-relocation-not-cruelty-irretrievable-breakdown/ https://valkya.org/editorial/asd-v-lcsibd-wife-career-relocation-not-cruelty-irretrievable-breakdown/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 12 May 2026, a two-judge bench expunged findings of cruelty and desertion against a dentist wife who had relocated from Kargil to Ahmedabad for tertiary medical care and to pursue her practice, holding that 'marriage does not eclipse her individuality' and retaining the divorce decree on the ground of irretrievable breakdown under Article 142. https://valkya.org/editorial/ashwini-kumar-upadhyay-v-union-of-india-hate-speech-batch-dismissed/ https://valkya.org/editorial/ashwini-kumar-upadhyay-v-union-of-india-hate-speech-batch-dismissed/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 29 April 2026, a two-judge bench dismissed thirteen writs, two SLPs and eight contempts in the long-running hate-speech batch, holding that constitutional courts cannot create criminal offences, that no legislative vacuum exists in the IPC/BNS framework, and that police failure to register a suo motu FIR is not, by itself, contempt. https://valkya.org/editorial/b-s-lalitha-v-bhuvanesh-hindu-succession-section-6-5-saving-clause/ https://valkya.org/editorial/b-s-lalitha-v-bhuvanesh-hindu-succession-section-6-5-saving-clause/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 15 May 2026, a two-judge bench held that Section 6(5) of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 is a narrow saving clause that protects pre-20 December 2004 partitions from the retroactive coparcenary amendment of 2005, but does not bar a partition suit and does not displace daughters' independent Section 8 rights — which accrued on the intestate's death and pre-existed the 2005 amendment. An oral partition among sons alone cannot defeat the daughters' succession share, and a second Order VII Rule 11 CPC application on identical grounds is barred by res judicata. https://valkya.org/editorial/bombay-hc-fahim-ansari-psv-badge-article-21-livelihood/ https://valkya.org/editorial/bombay-hc-fahim-ansari-psv-badge-article-21-livelihood/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 29 April 2026, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice A. S. Gadkari and Justice Ranjitsinha Bhonsale held that denial of a Police Clearance Certificate for a Public Service Vehicle badge — to a petitioner acquitted in the 26/11 case but separately convicted in the 2008 Rampur CRPF camp attack — is a reasonable restriction on the right to livelihood under Article 21. https://valkya.org/editorial/catalyst-trusteeship-v-ecstasy-realty-debenture-trustee-section-7/ https://valkya.org/editorial/catalyst-trusteeship-v-ecstasy-realty-debenture-trustee-section-7/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 24 February 2026, the Supreme Court restored a ₹600 crore Section 7 IBC petition, holding that informal restructuring with one debenture holder cannot defeat a debenture-trustee application that did not follow the Debenture Trust Deed's amendment procedure. https://valkya.org/editorial/commissioner-central-tax-v-chimney-hills-education-society-gst-scn-consolidated/ https://valkya.org/editorial/commissioner-central-tax-v-chimney-hills-education-society-gst-scn-consolidated/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 26 April 2026, a Karnataka High Court division bench held that show-cause notices under Sections 73/74 CGST Act are neither tax-period-specific nor financial-year-specific, allowing the Revenue's intra-court appeals and creating an inter-state split with Bombay and Madras. https://valkya.org/editorial/continental-automotive-brake-systems-v-commissioner-customs-abs-classification/ https://valkya.org/editorial/continental-automotive-brake-systems-v-commissioner-customs-abs-classification/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 22 April 2026, the CESTAT Principal Bench held that ECUs and sensors imported for assembly into Anti-lock Braking Systems are 'suitable for use' in motor vehicles and are denied the benefit of Notification 50/2017-Customs, but set aside interest and penalty on differential IGST for the pre-16 August 2024 period. https://valkya.org/editorial/daudayal-v-state-of-rajasthan-illegal-detention-compensation/ https://valkya.org/editorial/daudayal-v-state-of-rajasthan-illegal-detention-compensation/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 29 May 2026, a two-judge bench awarded ₹11 lakh in constitutional compensation for 24 days of illegal incarceration after a parole-release order, reiterating the 'obey first, appeal later' principle. https://valkya.org/editorial/dr-rajinder-rajan-v-union-of-india-mihir-shah-ndps-grounds-of-arrest/ https://valkya.org/editorial/dr-rajinder-rajan-v-union-of-india-mihir-shah-ndps-grounds-of-arrest/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 1 April 2026, a two-judge bench applied Mihir Shah to an NDPS arrest, holding that failure to supply written grounds of arrest before remand renders the arrest illegal even where section 37 ordinarily forecloses bail. https://valkya.org/editorial/dr-soma-mandal-debnath-v-tanmoy-debnath-workplace-humiliation-section-13-1-ia-hma/ https://valkya.org/editorial/dr-soma-mandal-debnath-v-tanmoy-debnath-workplace-humiliation-section-13-1-ia-hma/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial In January 2026, a Calcutta HC Division Bench upheld a divorce decree on the ground of cruelty under section 13(1)(ia) HMA, holding that a husband maligning his wife at her workplace, questioning her chastity and abusing her before colleagues strikes at the core of dignity protected under Article 21. https://valkya.org/editorial/emami-v-dabur-india-cool-king-passing-off/ https://valkya.org/editorial/emami-v-dabur-india-cool-king-passing-off/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 31 January 2026, a single judge of the Delhi High Court restrained Dabur from selling Cool King Thanda Tael in packaging deceptively similar to Emami's Navratna oil, reaffirming that trade-dress imitation is assessed on the totality of essential features. https://valkya.org/editorial/ex-sqn-ldr-r-sood-v-union-of-india-discharge-higher-than-acquittal/ https://valkya.org/editorial/ex-sqn-ldr-r-sood-v-union-of-india-discharge-higher-than-acquittal/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 15 April 2026, a two-judge bench inverted the conventional reading of the discharge–acquittal hierarchy, holding that a criminal-court discharge stands on a better footing than an acquittal and that disciplinary action on the same facts is barred once the armed forces have elected section 124 prosecution before a criminal court. https://valkya.org/editorial/flipkart-india-v-marc-enterprises-marq-marc-trademark-passing-off/ https://valkya.org/editorial/flipkart-india-v-marc-enterprises-marq-marc-trademark-passing-off/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial Delhi HC IP-Division Single Judge (Tejas Karia J.) upheld an interim injunction restraining Flipkart from using 'MARQ' and 'MARQ by Flipkart' for electronics, holding the mark phonetically, structurally and visually similar to prior-user Marc Enterprises' 'MARC' and that addition of the Flipkart house mark could not cure the deception. https://valkya.org/editorial/gade-ramana-reddy-v-state-of-telangana-municipal-reservation-pil/ https://valkya.org/editorial/gade-ramana-reddy-v-state-of-telangana-municipal-reservation-pil/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial Telangana HC DB (CJ Aparesh Kumar Singh and G.M. Mohiuddin J.) dismissed a PIL alleging ward-wise reservation between 70% and 90% in Telangana municipalities, finding the data did not substantiate the claim and reaffirming the horizontal-within-vertical reservation framework. https://valkya.org/editorial/gloster-limited-v-gloster-cables-nclt-section-60-5-c-nexus/ https://valkya.org/editorial/gloster-limited-v-gloster-cables-nclt-section-60-5-c-nexus/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 22 January 2026, a two-judge bench held that section 60(5)(c) IBC does not empower the NCLT to declare title in a disputed trademark when the approved resolution plan itself flags rival claims; trademark adjudication must be left to the competent civil court. https://valkya.org/editorial/gls-films-v-chemical-suppliers-india-section-9-mobilox-restated/ https://valkya.org/editorial/gls-films-v-chemical-suppliers-india-section-9-mobilox-restated/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 9 April 2026, the Supreme Court restated the Mobilox Innovations discipline: in a Section 9 IBC application the Adjudicating Authority enquires only into the existence of a plausible pre-existing dispute, not its merits; NCLAT cannot conduct a mini-trial to test the defence. https://valkya.org/editorial/harish-rana-v-union-of-india-passive-euthanasia/ https://valkya.org/editorial/harish-rana-v-union-of-india-passive-euthanasia/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 11 March 2026, a two-judge bench permitted withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a thirteen-year permanent-vegetative-state patient, classifying clinically assisted nutrition and hydration as medical treatment under the Common Cause framework. https://valkya.org/editorial/in-re-phalodi-accident-v-nhai-highway-safety-article-21/ https://valkya.org/editorial/in-re-phalodi-accident-v-nhai-highway-safety-article-21/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 13 April 2026, a two-judge bench held that the safety of commuters on national highways is an integral facet of the right to life with dignity under Article 21, and issued sweeping directions under Article 142 to NHAI, MoRTH, NHIDCL and State PWDs — including a ban on highway-shoulder parking and 75-day compliance reporting. https://valkya.org/editorial/ishwar-chand-sharma-v-state-of-up-pocso-parrot-like-testimony-quashed/ https://valkya.org/editorial/ishwar-chand-sharma-v-state-of-up-pocso-parrot-like-testimony-quashed/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 29 May 2026, a two-judge bench quashed POCSO and rape proceedings against an estranged husband's family on findings of tutored 'parrot-like' testimony, and articulated for the first time at Supreme Court level an explicit ethical duty on advocates not to assist vexatious matrimonial-dispute prosecutions. https://valkya.org/editorial/ito-v-gulsanober-rti-section-8-1-j-spouse-tax-returns/ https://valkya.org/editorial/ito-v-gulsanober-rti-section-8-1-j-spouse-tax-returns/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 21 February 2026, the Karnataka High Court set aside a CIC order directing disclosure of a husband's income tax returns to his wife under the RTI Act, holding that IT returns are 'personal information' exempt under section 8(1)(j) and issuing gender-neutral guidelines for financial-disclosure discovery in maintenance proceedings. https://valkya.org/editorial/keshav-bihani-v-cci-polyacetal-tubes-cartel-section-48/ https://valkya.org/editorial/keshav-bihani-v-cci-polyacetal-tubes-cartel-section-48/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial NCLAT Principal Bench dismisses appeals against CCI's bid-rigging finding on the polyacetal protective-tubes suppliers to Indian Railways; reads 'punished accordingly' in Section 48(1) of the Competition Act 2002 (pre-2023 Amendment) to mean the individual penalty must match the enterprise penalty in scale, applied to the active partner's income. https://valkya.org/editorial/laksh-vir-singh-yadav-v-union-of-india-right-to-be-forgotten-framework/ https://valkya.org/editorial/laksh-vir-singh-yadav-v-union-of-india-right-to-be-forgotten-framework/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 29 May 2026, Justice Sachin Datta of the Delhi High Court delivered a 144-page judgment recognising the Right to be Forgotten as an integral facet of informational privacy under Article 21 and laying down a workable framework for de-indexing judicial records. https://valkya.org/editorial/lyka-labs-v-modi-lifecare-section-9-invoice-not-mandatory/ https://valkya.org/editorial/lyka-labs-v-modi-lifecare-section-9-invoice-not-mandatory/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial NCLAT Principal Bench (Bhushan CP, Mitra and Baroka) holds that where a Technical Guidance Agreement itself creates a minimum-royalty obligation, the absence of invoices does not defeat a Section 9 application; ₹63 lakh deposit ordered failing which CIRP admission follows. https://valkya.org/editorial/maternal-grandmother-section-125-crpc-locus-punjab-haryana/ https://valkya.org/editorial/maternal-grandmother-section-125-crpc-locus-punjab-haryana/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial Justice Neerja K. Kalson held that a maternal grandmother in actual care and custody of her granddaughter has sufficient eligibility to maintain a section 125 CrPC application on the minor's behalf where the parental relationship has broken down; the minor's statutory right to maintenance cannot be defeated by a technical objection to who instituted the petition. https://valkya.org/editorial/mcm-worldwide-v-construction-industry-development-council-section-16-not-interim-award/ https://valkya.org/editorial/mcm-worldwide-v-construction-industry-development-council-section-16-not-interim-award/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 21 April 2026, the Supreme Court held that a rejection of a jurisdictional plea under section 16 of the Arbitration Act is not an interim award and cannot be challenged under section 34 until the final award is rendered. https://valkya.org/editorial/narayan-v-state-of-madhya-pradesh-bnss-section-480-bail-conditions/ https://valkya.org/editorial/narayan-v-state-of-madhya-pradesh-bnss-section-480-bail-conditions/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 22 April 2026, the Supreme Court held that the mandatory bail conditions under section 480(3) BNSS apply only to non-bailable offences punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more, correcting widespread trial-court template practice. https://valkya.org/editorial/ngt-omaxe-state-dwarka-deemed-ec-closed/ https://valkya.org/editorial/ngt-omaxe-state-dwarka-deemed-ec-closed/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 22 April 2026, the NGT Principal Bench held that the EIA Notification 2006 does not contemplate any 'deemed approval' of an Environmental Clearance, and directed the Tree Officer, MoEF&CC and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to act within eight weeks against a 61-acre Dwarka project that had felled approximately 2,000 trees without clearance. https://valkya.org/editorial/omkara-assets-v-amit-chaturvedi-scheme-of-arrangement-section-238/ https://valkya.org/editorial/omkara-assets-v-amit-chaturvedi-scheme-of-arrangement-section-238/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 24 February 2026, the Supreme Court held that a stale and procedurally defective Scheme of Arrangement under Sections 391–394 of the Companies Act 1956 cannot defeat a Section 7 IBC application; Section 238 IBC override extends to defunct schemes; a 28-year corporate dispute reaches doctrinal resolution. https://valkya.org/editorial/parvinder-singh-v-directorate-of-enforcement-bnss-223-pre-cognizance-hearing/ https://valkya.org/editorial/parvinder-singh-v-directorate-of-enforcement-bnss-223-pre-cognizance-hearing/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 19 May 2026, a two-judge bench held that the first proviso to Section 223(1) BNSS — requiring the accused to be heard before cognizance is taken on a complaint — is a mandatory, substantive Article 21 right; cognizance without compliance is void ab initio, and the rule applies to PMLA complaints where cognizance is taken on or after 1 July 2024 even if the complaint was filed earlier. https://valkya.org/editorial/pooja-v-aadharshila-vidyapeeth-article-21a-rte-school-choice-limits/ https://valkya.org/editorial/pooja-v-aadharshila-vidyapeeth-article-21a-rte-school-choice-limits/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial In March 2026, a Delhi HC Division Bench dismissed an LPA arising from a denied EWS/DG admission, holding that Article 21A and the RTE Act 2009 do not confer a constitutional right to admission in a particular school of choice once the academic year has ended and an alternative seat has been allotted. https://valkya.org/editorial/prabhu-kumar-v-state-of-himachal-pradesh-rpwd-disability-floor/ https://valkya.org/editorial/prabhu-kumar-v-state-of-himachal-pradesh-rpwd-disability-floor/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On March 2026, a two-judge bench struck down the State's 40–60% disability eligibility cap for an Assistant District Attorney post, ordered the appointment of a 90%-disabled advocate, and imposed ₹5 lakh costs on the State. https://valkya.org/editorial/rollmet-llp-v-union-of-india-consolidated-gst-scn-larger-bench/ https://valkya.org/editorial/rollmet-llp-v-union-of-india-consolidated-gst-scn-larger-bench/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 17 April 2026, a Bombay High Court division bench declined to follow Milroc Good Earth and referred to a Larger Bench the question whether a single show-cause notice under Sections 73/74 CGST Act may span multiple financial years. https://valkya.org/editorial/s-v-union-of-india-minor-mtp-28-weeks-article-21-reproductive-autonomy/ https://valkya.org/editorial/s-v-union-of-india-minor-mtp-28-weeks-article-21-reproductive-autonomy/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 24 April 2026, a two-judge bench permitted the medical termination of a 15-year-old's 28-week pregnancy, holding that Article 21's reproductive-autonomy guarantee — particularly for a pregnant minor — takes precedence over the MTP Act's statutory 24-week outer limit, and that adoption cannot be offered as a substitute for forced continuation. https://valkya.org/editorial/sajal-bose-v-state-of-west-bengal-bnss-528-quashing/ https://valkya.org/editorial/sajal-bose-v-state-of-west-bengal-bnss-528-quashing/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 6 April 2026, a three-judge bench held that the inherent powers under section 528 BNSS can be invoked to quash criminal proceedings where unimpeachable material displaces the prosecution's factual foundation; the Bhajan Lal framework carries through unbroken into the BNSS era. https://valkya.org/editorial/samarpan-jain-v-state-of-up-advocate-fir-quashed-gst-appeal/ https://valkya.org/editorial/samarpan-jain-v-state-of-up-advocate-fir-quashed-gst-appeal/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 26 May 2026, an Allahabad High Court division bench quashed an FIR, chargesheet and cognizance order against an advocate prosecuted for conspiracy after he filed a GST statutory appeal on behalf of his client using the Electronic Credit Ledger for pre-deposit. https://valkya.org/editorial/sanjay-dave-v-andhra-bank-coc-approval-bars-renegotiation/ https://valkya.org/editorial/sanjay-dave-v-andhra-bank-coc-approval-bars-renegotiation/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 27 May 2026, a two-judge bench held that once the Committee of Creditors approves a resolution plan, the Successful Resolution Applicant cannot renegotiate its terms — to permit otherwise would cause the architecture of the IBC to crumble. https://valkya.org/editorial/sebi-v-rashmi-saluja-religare-insider-trading-disgorgement/ https://valkya.org/editorial/sebi-v-rashmi-saluja-religare-insider-trading-disgorgement/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial SEBI Whole-Time Member Kamlesh C. Varshney finds the former Executive Chairperson of Religare Enterprises guilty of insider trading in REL shares sold 21-22 September 2023 in possession of UPSI of the Burman Group's 25 September 2023 open offer; orders ₹1.99 crore disgorgement with 12% interest, ₹40 lakh penalty, and a two-year market-access restraint. https://valkya.org/editorial/shayee-nisha-v-pdj-villupuram-tn-maternity-leave-third-pregnancy-struck/ https://valkya.org/editorial/shayee-nisha-v-pdj-villupuram-tn-maternity-leave-third-pregnancy-struck/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 28 April 2026, a Madras HC Division Bench struck down Tamil Nadu G.O. Ms. No. 18 of 13 March 2026 restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, operationalising K. Umadevi (2025) and anchoring maternity benefit as a facet of Article 21 reproductive autonomy. https://valkya.org/editorial/sivakumar-v-state-section-294-ipc-obscenity/ https://valkya.org/editorial/sivakumar-v-state-section-294-ipc-obscenity/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 6 April 2026, a two-judge bench set aside convictions under section 294(b) IPC for use of an expletive in a heated exchange, holding that mere abusive or vulgar language without sexual or prurient content does not amount to obscenity. https://valkya.org/editorial/state-of-tamil-nadu-v-ponnusamy-crime-scene-re-enactment-article-20-3/ https://valkya.org/editorial/state-of-tamil-nadu-v-ponnusamy-crime-scene-re-enactment-article-20-3/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Landmark Judgment Valkya Editorial On 19 May 2026, a two-judge bench held that a directed crime-scene re-enactment limited to physical movements does not per se amount to testimonial compulsion under Article 20(3); such material is admissible as corroborative — not substantive — evidence. Conviction restored on circumstantial proof; death sentence commuted to life.