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.
After the Supreme Court had earlier quashed the government's divesting of CBI Director Alok Verma and the ad-hoc appointment of M. Nageshwar Rao as interim Director (for bypassing the statutory High-Powered Selection Committee), the government again appointed Mr. Nageshwar Rao as interim Director on 10.1.2019, citing the "earlier arrangement" that had itself just been struck down. An NGO, Common Cause, and an RTI activist filed this writ petition seeking a direction to appoint a regular Director of CBI following the proper procedure under Section 4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, to quash the fresh interim appointment, and to ensure transparency in the selection process by disclosing shortlisting records under the RTI Act.
By the time the matter came up for hearing, the government had already appointed a regular Director of CBI, so the Court held that the petitioners' central prayer stood satisfied and there was no justification to continue the writ petition. On the RTI/transparency grievance, the Court noted the petitioner had been told to pursue a statutory appeal before the RTI Appellate Authority and had not done so, so there was no ground to intervene on that count either. The Court nonetheless preserved the petitioners' rights, clarifying that if the regular Director's appointment process had not followed due procedure, any aggrieved party remained free to challenge it separately through proper legal channels: just not in the hasty, piecemeal manner attempted here. The writ petition was accordingly dismissed, with parties left to bear their own costs.
A court will decline to rule on a grievance that has already become moot (here, because a permanent appointment had since been made), and separately, before approaching a constitutional court over an information-access complaint, a citizen must first exhaust the statutory appeal process available under the RTI Act.
