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.
In 1994, the Gujarat Maritime Board (a state body) allotted a ship-breaking plot to Asiatic Steel for over ₹3.6 crore, but the plot turned out to be unusable because of rocks blocking ships from beaching there: a problem the Board had agreed to fix but never did. After years of fruitless requests, Asiatic Steel abandoned the contract in 1998 and demanded a refund with interest. The Board eventually refunded the principal but refused to pay interest, even though it had paid interest (at 9-12%) to several other bidders in near-identical situations who had approached courts earlier. Asiatic Steel went to the High Court, which ordered the Board to pay 6% interest for the period the Board held the money.
The Supreme Court found that the Board behaved with "complete arbitrariness": it never responded to Asiatic Steel's repeated requests to fix the site or its refund demand, yet had promptly refunded similarly-placed bidders who went to court first. As a public body, the Board was expected to act fairly rather than force a citizen into litigation before doing what it should have done voluntarily. The Court upheld the High Court's order that the Board must pay interest, but corrected one factual error: interest should run only from 22.03.1995 (the actual date Asiatic Steel's payment was deposited), not from 08.11.1994 as the High Court had wrongly assumed. The appeal was dismissed, subject to this correction.
Government bodies and public authorities are held to a higher standard of fairness than private parties in contractual disputes: deliberately staying silent and forcing a citizen or company to litigate for a refund it is clearly owed can itself be treated as arbitrary conduct that attracts a court-ordered interest payment.
