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.
Dilip Mulani, Managing Director of a Mumbai customs-clearing company, was chargesheeted along with five others for conspiracy to bribe customs officials in exchange for clearing customs duty refund claims for the company's clients. The High Court discharged him twice, the second time after the Supreme Court had earlier sent the matter back for a fuller review, finding the evidence against him too thin. The CBI appealed to the Supreme Court against this discharge.
The Supreme Court closely examined the chargesheet and a diary maintained by a co-accused that recorded illegal payments, in which the initials "DM" appeared next to entries about bribe money. The CBI's own reply to the discharge application had earlier admitted that "DM" referred to a different co-accused, Dushyant Mulani, not to the respondent, Dilip Mulani. Beyond this diary entry, the Court found only a bare, unparticularised allegation that Dilip Mulani was part of the criminal conspiracy, with no specific evidence connecting him to any actual payment. Since even taking the chargesheet's material at face value it did not disclose a prima facie case against him, the Court upheld the discharge and dismissed the CBI's appeal.
At the stage of framing charges, courts must find a genuine prima facie case grounded in actual evidence: a vague conspiracy allegation, unsupported by specific material connecting the accused to the offence, cannot justify putting someone on trial.
