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.
Delhi Police advertised 523 constable vacancies in 2013. After a written exam was held and results declared, it was found that a bonus mark for height had not been correctly applied to some candidates, so results were recompiled. Separately, serious errors were later discovered in the official "model answer key" used to evaluate the exam, errors affecting 45 of 100 questions in one series of the question paper, which led to the entire examination (for that series) being treated as flawed and a revised result being issued before any appointments were made. Candidates who had initially appeared selected under the OBC category, but fell below the cut-off after the revised result, went to the Delhi High Court, which directed Delhi Police to appoint them anyway. Delhi Police appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that once an official answer key is shown to be substantially defective, any result generated using it is unreliable, and correcting the result before appointments are made is not just permissible but necessary to protect the fairness of the process for all candidates, not only those who had initially appeared to succeed. Since the revised, corrected result was declared before the respondents were actually appointed, they had no vested right to insist on appointment based on the earlier, flawed result. The Court distinguished this from cases where officials had already been appointed and working for years, where removing them later could be unjust. It set aside the High Court's directions and dismissed the respondents' writ petitions, confirming that the respondents did not qualify under the corrected result.
A selection result based on a demonstrably erroneous answer key can be corrected and revised even after provisional results are announced, so long as no appointments have yet been made: candidates do not acquire a permanent right to an appointment based on a flawed evaluation process.
