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.
Kelo Devi (the plaintiff) sued only for a permanent injunction to stop Balram Singh (the defendant) from disturbing her possession of a property, basing her claim on an unregistered agreement to sell dated 23 March 1996. She deliberately did not seek specific performance of the agreement itself. The defendant filed a counter-claim seeking possession. The trial court dismissed her injunction suit and allowed the defendant's counter-claim, but the first appellate court and the High Court both reversed this, ruling in the plaintiff's favour and dismissing the counter-claim.
The Supreme Court held that because the agreement to sell was unregistered, it was inadmissible in evidence, and while an unregistered document can sometimes be used for a limited "collateral purpose," a plaintiff cannot use it to indirectly obtain a benefit (here, effectively securing possession through an injunction) that she could not have obtained directly through a suit for specific performance. It found the plaintiff had used "clever drafting" (suing only for injunction, knowing a specific-performance claim on an unregistered document would fail) and held both the first appellate court and the High Court had erred in accepting this. It restored the trial court's judgment, dismissing the injunction suit and allowing the defendant's counter-claim for possession.
An unregistered agreement to sell cannot be used as a backdoor route to secure possession or ownership-like protection through a mere injunction suit; buyers relying on such agreements should ensure they are properly registered, or seek the correct substantive relief, rather than trying to sidestep the registration requirement through careful drafting of the relief claimed.
