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.
A landlady filed a suit in Aligarh for eviction and recovery of rent against her tenant, who denied that she was his true landlord and did not pay or deposit rent during the litigation. The Trial Court struck off the tenant's defence under Order XV Rule 5 CPC for non-payment of rent, and the Revisional Court upheld this. The High Court, however, reversed that decision and restored the tenant's defence, prompting the landlady to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that Order XV Rule 5 CPC requires a defendant-tenant to pay or deposit admitted or determined rent during the suit, and failure to do so, without any bona fide dispute genuinely accepted by the court, justifies striking off the defence. The Court found the tenant had shown "deliberate defiance" by not depositing any rent and that his belated deposits, made only after the High Court's order, could not cure the earlier default. It held the High Court's reasoning (that the tenant "deserves some indulgence") was unsupported by any actual finding and was merely assumptive, especially since the Trial Court's and Revisional Court's factual findings against the tenant were undisturbed. The Court set aside the High Court's order and restored the Trial Court's order striking off the defence, directing the long-pending 2011 suit to be disposed of expeditiously.
In rent disputes, a tenant who disputes the landlord's title but does not pay or deposit the admitted or court-determined rent during the case risks having his defence struck off entirely. Courts will not allow indulgence for non-payment without a genuine, well-founded reason, and belated payments made only to comply with a later order do not erase an earlier default.
