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 core question in this batch of connected appeals was whether a non-resident assessee (a Japanese company with Indian operations, and similarly placed companies like Alcatel Lucent) could be made liable to pay interest under Section 234B of the Income-tax Act for short payment of advance tax, where the shortfall arose because the Indian payers had failed to deduct tax at source on payments made to the assessee. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and the High Courts had taken divergent views, and the Revenue appealed the rulings favourable to the assessees.
The Supreme Court held that, for the period before the financial year 2012-13, an assessee is entitled to reduce the tax deductible or collectible at source while computing its own advance tax liability under Section 209 of the Act. Since the shortfall arose from the payer's default in deducting tax at source and not the assessee's own default, the assessee could not be treated as having defaulted in paying advance tax, and therefore was not liable to interest under Section 234B for that period. The Court noted the law changed prospectively from 2012-13 with an amendment to Section 209(1)(d). It clarified that the Revenue is not remediless, as it can proceed separately against the defaulting payer. The Revenue's appeals were accordingly dismissed, and a connected batch of similarly-placed appeals was allowed in the assessees' favour.
A taxpayer cannot be penalised with interest for an advance-tax shortfall that was actually caused by someone else's failure (such as a payer not deducting tax at source): the tax authorities must pursue the defaulting party directly instead.
