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.
An operational creditor (Forech India) had filed a winding-up petition against a company in the Delhi High Court in 2014 over unpaid dues. While that petition was still pending, a separate financial creditor (Edelweiss) filed an independent insolvency application against the same company before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the newer Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, and that application was admitted. Forech challenged this, arguing its earlier winding-up petition should take priority and continue in the High Court instead.
The Supreme Court traced the statutory history of how winding-up petitions pending in High Courts interact with the newer insolvency process under the Code, including successive amendments to Section 434 of the Companies Act. It held that an independent insolvency application validly filed under Section 7 of the Code can proceed on its own track and is not barred simply because an older winding-up petition is pending elsewhere, since Section 238 of the Code gives it overriding effect. The Court declined to interfere with the Appellate Tribunal's order allowing Edelweiss's insolvency proceeding to continue, but gave Forech liberty to apply to transfer its own winding-up case to the NCLT to be treated as a fresh insolvency application.
Once the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code came into force, a creditor cannot rely on an old, pending winding-up case in the High Court to block a separate, validly filed insolvency proceeding before the NCLT: the newer insolvency process generally takes precedence.
