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.
The respondent was run over and severely injured (his leg was amputated) by a Reach Stacker, a large container-handling machine, while inside the Inland Container Depot at Tughlakabad, New Delhi, operated by Container Corporation of India. His compensation claim under the Motor Vehicles Act was rejected by the Tribunal on the ground that a Reach Stacker, being a special vehicle confined to enclosed premises, is not a "motor vehicle" under the Act. The High Court reversed this and held it was a motor vehicle, prompting the Corporation's appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court restored the Tribunal's view and set aside the High Court's ruling. It held that the container depot's internal roads, being a customs-bonded area accessible only to authorised personnel, do not qualify as a "public place" under Section 2(34) of the Act. On the core question, it found that a Reach Stacker, weighing over 70 metric tonnes empty and exceeding legal road-weight limits, requiring dismantling for transport, and used exclusively for a narrow industrial purpose on specially reinforced surfaces: falls within the statutory exclusion for "a vehicle of a special type adapted for use only in a factory or other enclosed premises," and is therefore not a "motor vehicle" for MV Act compensation purposes. The Court restored the Tribunal's dismissal of the claim but clarified that any money already paid to the respondent need not be recovered, and left open a claimant's right to compensation if an ordinary road vehicle (rather than special depot machinery) caused injury inside such premises.
Compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act is not automatically available for injuries caused by heavy specialised machinery (like container-handling equipment) operating inside restricted industrial premises: such machines and areas can fall entirely outside the Act's definitions of "motor vehicle" and "public place."
