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.
Homebuyers' associations challenged the West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017 (WB-HIRA), arguing it was effectively a copy of the central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) but with weaker buyer protections, and that it had never received the President's assent required when a state law conflicts with a central law on a subject both can legislate on. The dispute required the Court to examine whether housing and real-estate regulation fell within the Concurrent List of the Constitution, where both Parliament and state legislatures can make laws, but a state law that conflicts with a central one needs presidential approval to survive.
The Supreme Court held that WB-HIRA dealt with the same subject matter as RERA and was substantially repugnant to it: in some places merely replicating RERA's provisions and in others directly conflicting with buyer-protective features like extent of registration, penalties, and grievance redressal. Since WB-HIRA had not received Presidential assent under Article 254(2), it could not prevail over the central law and was declared unconstitutional and struck down in its entirety. The Court used its special constitutional powers (Article 142) to protect past registrations, approvals, and permissions already granted under WB-HIRA so that ongoing projects and buyers would not be thrown into chaos by the ruling.
A state cannot pass its own law on a subject already regulated by Parliament if the state law conflicts with or merely duplicates the central law, unless the state law has received the President's specific assent: this protects uniform buyer protections like RERA across the country.
