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.
Transfer Petition (Criminal) · 2026 INSC 1060
Where a marriage has irretrievably broken down and the parties reach a genuine, voluntary settlement, including on alimony, the Supreme Court can use its Article 142 powers to grant a mutual-consent divorce and close out all related litigation in one stroke, without requiring the usual statutory waiting period.
Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 1061
In long-running, complex litigation involving apportioned government liabilities across states, the Supreme Court can use a mechanism like a retired-judge committee plus periodic compliance affidavits to bring genuine finality, including firm timelines, transparency obligations, and interest for delayed payment, rather than leaving matters open-ended.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1062
In an "as is where is" liquidation auction, a bidder who voluntarily accepts the auction terms cannot later resile from a forfeiture clause by citing regulatory caps or after-the-fact excuses for non-payment: courts will enforce the auction notice's own conditions.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8338-DB
Once someone is released from custody because the police failed to properly communicate the grounds of arrest, the police cannot simply re-arrest them by adding new charges: a specific, court-supervised procedure with senior-officer accountability must be followed, or the re-arrest itself becomes illegal.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8308
In economic-offence cases, bail can still be granted where the method used to quantify the alleged financial evasion is not adequately justified, and where the apprehension of re-offending is speculative rather than evidence-based.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8323
A parole claim must be backed by a genuine, verifiable application to the competent jail authority: courts will scrutinise irregularities like an incomplete address, an unexplained thumb mark, or reliance on a mere friend's affidavit rather than close family.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8337
Courts can grant short, strictly time-bound interim bail purely on humanitarian/compassionate grounds (such as caring for a seriously ill family member), even while a case remains pending trial and an earlier bail plea has failed.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8312
Courts will not repeatedly re-examine a bail plea already rejected on merits unless the applicant can point to a genuine change in circumstances since the earlier order.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8334
Under the no-fault compensation scheme for railway accidents, a valid ticket-holder injured while attempting to board a train, even carelessly, is generally entitled to compensation unless the railway can show a deliberate, conscious exposure to danger, not mere negligence.
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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.
Bank employees' unions and officers' associations across several banks challenged Section 17(2)(viii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Rule 3(7)(i) of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, which together make interest-free or concessional loans given by banks to their own employees taxable as a "perquisite" (fringe benefit): valued by comparing the interest actually charged to the Prime Lending Rate (PLR) of the State Bank of India. The unions argued this amounted to an unconstitutional delegation of essential legislative power to the tax authorities (CBDT), and that using SBI's PLR as a fixed benchmark, rather than each bank's own rates, was arbitrary and violated Article 14's equality guarantee. High Courts in Madras and Madhya Pradesh had already dismissed similar writ petitions, prompting this batch of appeals to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that an interest-free or concessional loan from an employer to an employee is naturally a "fringe benefit" and therefore a taxable perquisite. Applying the "essential legislative function" test from earlier Constitution Bench rulings, it found that Section 17(2)(viii) clearly lays down the legislative policy (taxing fringe benefits/amenities) while leaving only the details to subordinate rule-making: this is permissible delegation, not an unconstitutional handover of legislative power. On the SBI PLR benchmark, the Court held it was neither arbitrary nor discriminatory: SBI, as the country's largest bank, has interest rates that influence the whole banking sector, and a single clear benchmark promotes certainty, consistency, and reduces litigation, all hallmarks of sound tax policy, which courts should approach with judicial deference given the wider latitude fiscal legislation traditionally enjoys. The appeals were accordingly dismissed and the High Court judgments upheld, with no order as to costs.
Interest-free or discounted loans that employees get purely because of their job are taxable income, not a "free" perk, and courts generally defer to the government's technical choices in tax law (like which benchmark rate to use) as long as the underlying law clearly sets the policy and the rule only fills in reasonable, consistent details.
