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.
M/s Shaw Scott Distillery (P) Ltd. owed substantial trade tax arrears for 1980-82. Before any recovery proceedings began, it sold its plant, machinery, and goods to a purchaser (later renamed M/s Radico Khaitan Ltd.) in December 1985 and January 1986 for about Rs. 12.12 lakh. Years later, after reassessment and issuance of a recovery certificate against the original assessee, the tax department invoked Section 34 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act to endorse that recovery certificate against the purchaser as well, treating the earlier sale as a fraudulent transfer. The purchaser challenged this endorsement, and the Trade Tax Tribunal and later the Allahabad High Court both ruled in its favour, prompting the Revenue to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that Section 34 only applies when property is transferred during the pendency of tax proceedings with intent to defraud the revenue, and does not affect a bona fide transferee for value. Here, at the time of the 1985-86 sale, no assessment or recovery proceedings were pending against the original assessee (the earlier assessment had concluded in 1984 and was reopened only in 1988, with the recovery certificate issued only in 1990). Since the sale predated any pending proceedings and its consideration was undisputed, Section 34 could not be invoked against the purchaser. The Court found no error in the High Court's dismissal of the Revenue's revision applications and dismissed both appeals with no costs.
A tax authority cannot invalidate a genuine, paid-for sale of property to recover another party's tax dues unless the transfer actually took place while proceedings against the defaulter were pending and was made with intent to defraud the revenue: a bona fide purchaser for value who bought before any such proceedings began is protected.
