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 original landowners' land was acquired, and a reference court initially fixed compensation at Rs. 6 per square yard. In 2012, the Allahabad High Court enhanced this to Rs. 28.12 per square yard. Instead of the landowners, it was the State that would ordinarily be aggrieved by an enhancement, but here the landowners themselves filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in 2018, six years after the High Court's order, seeking still higher compensation.
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on two independent grounds. First, the six-year delay in approaching the Court was unexplained and, following its own precedent, fatal to the petition. Second, the landowners had already accepted and withdrawn the enhanced compensation deposited by the State without protest, which undercut their claim of grievance. On merits, the Court noted that on the very same day, in a connected batch of appeals concerning land acquired for the identical purpose under the same 1976 notification, it had already fixed Rs. 28.12 per square yard as the appropriate rate, so there was no additional case for a higher rate. The petition was dismissed on both delay and merits; an application to bring the legal heirs of a deceased petitioner on record was allowed.
An unexplained multi-year delay in approaching the Supreme Court will usually be fatal to a case regardless of its underlying merits, and accepting compensation or relief from the other side without protest can weaken a later claim for more.
