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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Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case investigated under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was arrested from his Delhi home in 2018. Before he could be transferred to Maharashtra, the Delhi High Court ordered that he not be moved and he was effectively kept under house arrest for a period. He later argued that this period of house arrest should count as "custody" under Section 167 of the CrPC, which would have entitled him to mandatory ("default") bail because the investigation was not completed within the statutory time limit.
The Supreme Court held that while house arrest can, in principle, qualify as custody under Section 167 CrPC, it only does so when a court has specifically and consciously ordered it as such. In Navlakha's case, the house arrest arose from an ad hoc protective order of the High Court rather than a considered order treating it as Section 167 custody, so that period could not be counted towards his claim for default bail. The Court went on to lay down guiding criteria, such as the accused's age, health, and the nature of the offence, for when courts may order house arrest as a recognized form of custody in future cases, but on the facts before it, dismissed Navlakha's appeal.
House arrest is not automatically the same as police or judicial custody for the purpose of claiming default bail: it only counts if a court has clearly ordered it as custody under Section 167 CrPC at the time, not when it results from a separate protective order.
