M. Selected Additional Landmark Cases
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| Case | Year | Bench | Holding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab | 1980 | 5-judge | Upheld the constitutional validity of the death penalty for murder, but confined its imposition to the "rarest of rare" cases where the alternative of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed. |
| Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab | 1983 | 3-judge | Elaborated Bachan Singh's "rarest of rare" test into concrete categories (manner of commission, motive, social abhorrence, magnitude, and the victim's identity/status) to guide when a murder crosses the threshold for death sentence. |
| Mithu v. State of Punjab | 1983 | 5-judge | Struck down the mandatory death sentence prescribed under Sec. 303 IPC (for murder by a life convict) as arbitrary and unconstitutional — sentencing discretion cannot be removed entirely from judges. |
| T.M.A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka | 2002 | 11-judge | Defined the autonomy private and minority educational institutions enjoy over admissions and fee structures under Arts. 19(1)(g) and 30, while permitting reasonable regulatory oversight to ensure merit and prevent profiteering. |
| P.A. Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra | 2005 | 7-judge | Held the State cannot impose its reservation policy on unaided private professional institutions — a ruling later substantially modified in effect by the 93rd Constitutional Amendment. |
| Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug v. Union of India | 2011 | 2-judge | First recognised a limited, tightly-conditioned form of passive euthanasia in India (withdrawal of life support for a patient in a permanent vegetative state, with High Court oversight) — the framework was later broadened and formalised by Common Cause (2018). |
| Lily Thomas v. Union of India | 2013 | 2-judge | Struck down the statutory provision that let a convicted sitting MP/MLA continue in office pending appeal — held disqualification under the Representation of the People Act takes effect immediately upon conviction. |
| Suresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation | 2013 | 2-judge | Reversed the Delhi High Court's 2009 decriminalisation of Sec. 377 IPC, holding the legislature — not the courts — should decide the question; itself expressly overruled by Navtej Singh Johar (2018). |
| Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank Ltd. | 2019 | 5-judge | Doubted the Aadhaar case's (2018) finding that the Aadhaar Act was validly passed as a Money Bill; referred the correctness of that finding to a larger bench — the question remains formally unresolved. |
Notes. This section is deliberately grouped by doctrine rather than one continuous timeline — three clusters worth holding separately: the death-penalty trio (Bachan Singh → Machhi Singh → Mithu), the private-education-autonomy pair (T.M.A. Pai → Inamdar), and a miscellaneous set of institutional/liberty rulings (Aruna Shanbaug, Lily Thomas, Suresh Koushal, Rojer Mathew) that each connect back to a case elsewhere in the book (Common Cause, disqualification law, Navtej Singh Johar, and the Aadhaar case respectively).
Mnemonic. Death-penalty trio: "Bachan Mapped it, Mithu Made it discretionary again" — Bachan Singh (1980, rarest-of-rare born) → Machhi Singh (1983, categories mapped) → Mithu (1983, mandatory death sentence struck down). Education pair: "Pai Is Not Absolute" — T.M.A. Pai (2002, broad autonomy) → Inamdar (2005, State can't impose reservation on unaided private institutions, later narrowed by the 93rd Amendment).
Practice Recall. Before reading on: name the three death-penalty cases in order and, in one phrase each, what each one added.
Answer: Bachan Singh (1980) — created the "rarest of rare" doctrine. Machhi Singh (1983) — laid down concrete categories to apply it. Mithu (1983) — struck down the mandatory death sentence under Sec. 303 IPC, since sentencing discretion cannot be removed from judges entirely.