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.
The appellant, an armed forces member who had been discharged from service after failing an aptitude test, had a pending case before a High Court at the time the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) was established under the Armed Forces Tribunal Act, 2007. A key legal question arose: did an intra-court appeal pending before a Division Bench of a High Court (against a single judge's order in an armed-forces service matter) have to be transferred to the newly-created AFT, or could the High Court continue to hear it itself? The appellant also separately argued that his discharge order was invalid because it didn't show he had been considered for an alternative post.
The Supreme Court held that Section 14(1) of the AFT Act expressly excludes the High Courts' and Supreme Court's constitutional writ/appellate jurisdiction from the AFT's powers, and relied on the Constitution Bench ruling in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India that judicial review by High Courts is part of the Constitution's basic structure and cannot be ousted by a tribunal statute. It rejected the argument (based on a different precedent, Major General Shri Kant Sharma) that the AFT fully substitutes for the High Court, holding that an intra-court appeal already pending before a High Court Division Bench does not get transferred to the AFT. On the merits of the appellant's own discharge, the Court found the record showed he had in fact been considered for alternative posts but failed to meet the height criteria, and that the discharge order need not spell this out explicitly. The appeal was dismissed.
Tribunals created by ordinary legislation, including the Armed Forces Tribunal, cannot take over a High Court's own constitutional appellate or writ jurisdiction: that power is part of the basic structure of the Constitution and survives regardless of what a tribunal's enabling Act says.
