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.
This case arose from an election petition challenging the victory of Arjun Panditrao Khotkar, who won a Maharashtra Assembly seat by a margin of just 296 votes. The challengers argued that his nomination papers were filed after the official 3:00 PM deadline, and they relied on video-camera footage from the returning officer's office to prove this. The key legal dispute was whether that video footage could be used as evidence in court without a special certificate (under Section 65B(4) of the Evidence Act) confirming how the recording was made and preserved. Because of conflicting earlier Supreme Court rulings on this certificate requirement, the matter was referred to this three-judge bench to settle the law definitively.
The Court held that a certificate under Section 65B(4) is mandatory for any electronic record (CDs, pen drives, call records, CCTV footage, WhatsApp chats, etc.) to be admitted as evidence, except where the original device itself is produced in court, overruling the more flexible "certificate can be waived if impossible to obtain" approach taken in an earlier judgment (Shafhi Mohammad). On the facts, the Court found that the candidate had tried in good faith to obtain the certificate from the Election Commission but was denied it through no fault of his own, yet the underlying legal requirement for late nomination still was not satisfied. The Court dismissed the appeals, upholding the High Court's decision that the election was void, and also issued broader directions for courts and authorities to frame updated rules for handling electronic evidence given how central digital records have become to litigation.
Any electronic record, a CCTV clip, a WhatsApp message, a voice recording, generally cannot be used as evidence in an Indian court unless accompanied by a proper Section 65B certificate confirming its authenticity and chain of custody; parties relying on digital evidence should obtain this certificate at the earliest opportunity, including from courts if a third party refuses to issue one.
