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 respondent company, an existing customer of the appellant Bank, applied for enhanced credit facilities worth over Rs. 40 crore in 2011 and revised its requirements three times before the Bank sanctioned the facilities in March 2012. The Bank had debited the respondent's account for processing fees and a mandatory technical-economic viability (TEV) study, but the respondent complained to consumer fora that this was excessive and that the Bank had delayed sanctioning the loan, causing it to seek credit elsewhere. The State and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions ruled substantially in the respondent's favour, ordering the Bank to refund a large portion of the charges with interest.
The Supreme Court held that the NCDRC's calculation of what the Bank was entitled to charge was not based on the Bank's actual circular or the sanction letter but was essentially the Commission's own improvised figure ("ipse dixit"). It found that the respondent, a sophisticated borrower seeking a Rs. 40-crore facility, could not credibly claim ignorance of the Bank's standard processing-fee circular, and that even after applying the 50% concession the respondent had itself requested, the amount properly chargeable was still well above what the Bank had actually debited. The Court therefore set aside the consumer fora's orders as legally unsustainable, but held the Bank to its own prior offer (made by email) to refund Rs. 9.16 lakh, directing that specific, smaller refund within two months.
Consumer forums must base refund or compensation orders on the actual contractual terms and bank circulars governing a transaction, not on an improvised figure of their own, and a party is generally bound by its own clear, communicated settlement offer even when the broader claim against it fails.
