Real judgements, distilled
Court judgements broken down into the case type, how the decision played out, and the lesson worth remembering, with the full judgement available as a PDF.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1073
In circumstantial-evidence cases, forensic and DNA evidence must actually corroborate the alleged crime: a conviction cannot survive where the most crucial scientific evidence, on its own terms, points away from rather than toward the prosecution's theory.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1074
A conviction based purely on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain, timeline, witness credibility, forensic matches, and motive, to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; gaps or suppressed evidence at any link entitle the accused to the benefit of the doubt, even in a serious case like a double murder.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8505
Courts will not quash a criminal case merely because the accused has a plausible alibi-type defence; unless that defence is conclusive and undisputed, the matter must be tested through the ordinary trial process.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8547
A private compromise between victim and accused cannot by itself secure quashing of a case involving serious, heinous allegations like attempted murder with a weapon: such matters must proceed to trial regardless of settlement.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8563
Railway Claims Tribunals cannot reject a bona fide passenger's death claim based on speculative inferences when there is no direct evidence of an alternative cause of death; the compensation scheme under the Railways Act is to be interpreted generously in favour of victims' families.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8559
In matrimonial offences, courts can and do quash criminal proceedings once a genuine compromise is verified directly with the complainant, sparing both parties a prolonged and pointless trial.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8541
A co-accused's bail does not automatically extend to another accused where their actual roles in the offence differ materially; delay caused by one's own defence counsel cannot later be used as a ground for bail.
Execution Petition · 2026:DHC:8567
An arbitral award must be adequately stamped before a court can enforce it; courts give only a limited window to cure such defects, after which the award becomes legally unusable until the deficiency is fixed.
Arbitration Petition · 2026:DHC:8555
A genuine settlement reached through mediation renders a pending arbitration-related court petition moot, allowing parties to close out litigation quickly once they resolve their dispute privately.
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Legal Case Shots is a searchable database of Supreme Court of India judgments, each broken down into the case type, the court's key holding, and a practical lesson learnt, with the full judgment available as a PDF for citation or deeper reading.
Akshay Kumar Singh, another convict in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder ("Nirbhaya") case, challenged the President's rejection of his mercy petition. He argued the rejection ignored that he had been kept in solitary confinement and allegedly tortured in prison, and that media interviews by persons in authority may have influenced the President's decision. He also pointed to his wife's pending divorce petition as a circumstance that should have been considered.
The Court reiterated that judicial review of the President's mercy power under Article 72 is extremely narrow: limited to grounds such as non-application of mind, mala fide exercise, reliance on irrelevant material, or arbitrariness (per Epuru Sudhakar v. Govt. of A.P.). It held none of the petitioner's grounds, alleged prison torture, press commentary, or his wife's divorce petition, met this threshold, since the President, as the highest constitutional authority, is presumed to have acted after considering all materials. The writ petition was dismissed.
The President's decision on a mercy petition can only be judicially reviewed on a handful of narrow legal grounds (like bad faith or complete non-application of mind): sympathetic personal circumstances or media commentary, however compelling, are not by themselves grounds for a court to overturn it.
