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 appellant was appointed in 2004 as an Assistant Professor at a UGC-funded university under the Tenth Five Year Plan. After he objected to an unauthorised monthly salary deduction, the university terminated his services in 2007, claiming his post was tied only to the Tenth Plan and had been abolished, even though the university had simultaneously told the UGC it needed the same post continued into the Eleventh Plan. His writ petition was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. Years later, on this Court's direction, a UGC Expert Committee re-examined his case using RTI-obtained documents and found the termination "perverse and incorrect," since other similarly placed Tenth Plan teachers had all been made permanent and the department had never actually been abolished.
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that the university's own contemporaneous correspondence contradicted its claim that the appellant's post was abolished: it had told the UGC the department was continuing with adequate student strength and sought continued funding for the very post the appellant held. The Court relied heavily on the UGC's own documented findings (based on the university's RTI admissions) that all other Tenth Plan appointees had been made permanent except the appellant, and that his appointment letter did not actually say his post was contractual or time-limited. The Court directed the university to reinstate the appellant and credit him with continuity of service for pension and retirement benefits, but denied back pay for the period he did not work, applying the "no work, no pay" principle.
An employer's own contemporaneous written communications (here, letters to its funding body) can be used against it to disprove a later claim that a post was eliminated, and where regulatory bodies or inquiry committees have already found selective, inconsistent treatment of a single employee based on documented facts, courts will act on that finding to grant reinstatement.
