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.
Priya Paul's son died when the two-seater glider plane he was riding in, during a sightseeing flight at a gliding facility in British Columbia, Canada, collided mid-air with another aircraft. She claimed Rs. 1 crore under her son's personal accident insurance policy, but the insurer repudiated the claim, arguing the glider was not a "standard type of aircraft" and that the gliding facility was not a "regular scheduled airline or air charter company" as required by the policy's exclusion clauses. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruled in her favour, and the insurer appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Court held that a glider squarely falls within the statutory definition of "aircraft" under both Indian and Canadian law, and that since the policy itself never defined "standard type of aircraft," the ambiguity had to be resolved in favour of the insured (the rule of contra proferentem in insurance contracts). It found the glider was duly licensed and that the gliding facility, by renting out the entire two-seater aircraft for a fee, operated as an "own-use air charter company" even without a formal charter licence. The deceased was held to be a fare-paying passenger. On every disputed point, the Court upheld the Commission's reasoning and dismissed the insurer's appeal.
When an insurance policy's exclusion clause uses an undefined or ambiguous term, courts will interpret it in favour of the policyholder/claimant, not the insurance company that drafted it: insurers must define their exclusions clearly if they want them strictly enforced.
