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 Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was repealed and replaced by the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 2000, but FEMA allowed prosecutions for FERA offences to continue for a two-year "sunset period." Within that window, an Enforcement Officer filed a criminal complaint against the appellants (a stock-broking company and others) for FERA violations. The appellants argued the officer's authorisation to file such complaints had lapsed the moment FERA itself was repealed, making the complaint invalid, and their discharge applications and later a High Court petition challenging the prosecution were all rejected.
The Supreme Court examined the "repeal and saving" provisions of FEMA (Section 49) and held that these provisions specifically preserved the authority of Enforcement Officers to file complaints for FERA offences during the two-year sunset period, as if FERA had not been repealed at all. Accepting the appellants' argument would defeat the very purpose of the sunset clause, rendering it meaningless: an outcome the Court said no statute should be interpreted to produce. Since the complaint here was filed and cognizance taken within that two-year window by a duly authorised officer, it was valid, and the prosecution could proceed. The appeal was dismissed, with a direction that the long-stayed trial be given priority.
When a law is repealed and replaced, a "saving clause" giving a transition/sunset period keeps the old law's enforcement machinery, including officers' powers to prosecute pending violations, fully alive for that period; courts will read such provisions in the way that keeps them functional rather than in a way that defeats their purpose.
