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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
6201 more judgements for members
You're seeing the newest cases. Log in — it's free — to keep scrolling, search by name or judge, and filter by court or legal area.
Log in to see moreLegal Case Shots is built to help you quickly identify and understand relevant precedent. For citation in pleadings or filings, always verify against the full judgment PDF and current citation format (e.g., 2026 INSC ___).
The holding is what the court legally decided. The lesson learnt translates that into a practical takeaway: what a lawyer should factor into case strategy or client advice as a result of this precedent.
Both. Each case shows a distilled summary (case type, key holding, and lesson learnt) and links to the full judgment as a PDF for when you need the complete text for research or citation.
Yes. Use Advanced Filters to narrow results by decision date and by practice area, including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Service & Administrative Law, Family Law, Civil Property & Inheritance, and Labour & Industrial Law.
Yes. You can filter judgments by the judge or bench that decided the case, which is useful for tracking how a particular judge has reasoned on similar issues across multiple rulings.
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 appellant successfully bid for a sand-mining tender in Uttar Pradesh and was allotted a mining permit. The District Magistrate then issued a Demand Notice requiring him to deposit an amount equal to 10% of the entire bid amount (over ₹54 lakh) to the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) Trust, under a State policy dated 22.04.2017 issued in relaxation of the normal mining rules. The appellant challenged this before the Allahabad High Court, arguing that under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, contributions to the DMF should be capped at 10% of the royalty payable (a much smaller figure), not 10% of the total bid amount. The High Court rejected this challenge, and the appellant approached the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court examined the original government records behind the 2017 policy (produced on the Court's earlier direction) and found the State had validly exercised its power under Rule 68 of the U.P. Minor Minerals (Concession) Rules, 1963, to relax the normal rules: necessitated by a court-ordered mining ban that was disrupting construction activity. On the substantive dispute, the Court held that Section 9B of the 1957 Act (which links DMF contributions to a percentage of royalty) does not apply to "minor minerals" like sand, because Section 14 of the Act expressly excludes Sections 5 to 13 from applying to minor minerals. Instead, the applicable provision was Section 15A, which separately empowers the State Government to independently prescribe the amount payable to the DMF Trust for minor minerals, and the State had validly fixed this at 10% of the total bid/title amount under Rule 10(2) of the District Mineral Foundation Trust Rules, 2017. The appellant's reliance on general mining Rules 21 and 54 also failed because those rules do not apply once an area is opened up for tender/auction under Rule 23(3). The appeals were dismissed and the demand notice upheld.
For "minor minerals" (like sand, used in ordinary construction), the special protections and royalty-linked formulas that apply to major minerals under the central Mines and Minerals Act do not automatically apply: State Governments have independent, broader power to fix contribution amounts payable to District Mineral Foundations for minor mineral concessions, so bidders should carefully check the specific state rules and tender terms rather than assuming the major-mineral formula applies.
