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.
J.A.J. Vasu Sena was appointed on probation as a PGT (English) teacher at a Delhi minority school in 2008 for one year. Her probation was extended twice and she continued as a probationer for nearly five years before the school discharged her from service in 2013 without ever issuing an order confirming her in the post. She challenged her discharge, and the Delhi High Court's Division Bench held that under the applicable service rules she stood "deemed confirmed" simply because she had been kept on beyond the maximum permissible probation period, and ordered her reinstatement.
The Supreme Court found that the High Court had relied on an outdated, superseded text of the governing rule; correctly read, the rule capped the total permissible probation period at two years (one year plus one further year's extension), a limit that applies to minority institutions too. However, the Court held there is no automatic "deemed confirmation" merely from being kept on beyond that period: the rule required a specific, affirmative act of confirmation by the school, which was never done, so the teacher did not become a confirmed employee by the mere passage of time. Despite this, the Court used its special constitutional power under Article 142 to award her a one-time payment of Rs 5,00,000, recognising that she had given five years of service while the school itself had flouted the probation-period cap. The appeal was partly allowed.
Being kept on "probation" well past the period a rule allows does not, by itself, make a job permanent: confirmation usually requires an actual order from the employer, not just the passage of time. Courts can still step in to compensate an employee for an employer's prolonged rule violation, even where no automatic right to permanent employment exists.
