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 assessee, a company generating and distributing electricity, claimed a deduction under Section 80-IA of the Income Tax Act for profits from its power-generation business. The Assessing Officer restricted this deduction to the extent of the company's "business income" only, excluding its other income (such as income from other sources), relying on Section 80AB of the Act. The appellate authority, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, and the High Court all ruled in the assessee's favour, holding that the deduction could be set off against the company's entire "gross total income," not just business income. The tax department (Revenue) appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard the facts of Civil Appeal No. 1328 of 2021 as the representative lead case, with this appeal (Civil Appeal No. 1327 of 2021) and others disposed of on the same reasoning.
The Supreme Court held that Section 80AB only governs how a deduction's quantum is computed (on net income from the eligible business), not against which category of income that deduction can later be set off. Separately, Section 80-IA(5), which says the eligible business must be treated as the assessee's "only source of income" for computing the deduction amount, was also found to deal merely with the computation stage, not with limiting where the computed deduction could be applied. Relying on its own precedent in Synco Industries and Canara Workshops, the Court agreed with the assessee that, once validly computed, the Section 80-IA deduction could be set off against the company's gross total income (subject to the overall cap that total deductions cannot exceed gross total income), not restricted to business income alone. The Revenue's appeal was accordingly dismissed on this issue; a connected but legally unrelated appeal (Civil Appeal No. 1509 of 2021) was de-tagged for separate consideration.
In tax law, provisions that govern how a deduction amount is calculated (computation) are legally distinct from provisions that govern against which income the deduction can be claimed (set-off), conflating the two can lead to an unduly narrow and incorrect restriction of a taxpayer's legitimate deduction.
