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 respondent employee joined Vijaya Bank (since amalgamated into Bank of Baroda) as a probationary Assistant General Manager. He was suspended over an allegation of trying to remove confidential tender documents from his office, but the suspension was later revoked "without prejudice" to the bank's right to hold a disciplinary inquiry: an inquiry that was never actually held. Instead, his probation was extended twice on stated grounds of unsatisfactory performance, and he was eventually terminated under the probation regulations. The Calcutta High Court's Single Bench quashed the termination as based on irrelevant considerations, and the Division Bench upheld that decision, prompting the bank's appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed the established legal distinction between a termination that is a genuine "termination simpliciter" (based on unsuitability, permissible without a formal inquiry) and one where alleged misconduct is really the "foundation" of the termination dressed up as mere unsatisfactory performance (which requires a formal disciplinary inquiry). Examining the sequence of events: suspension for alleged misconduct, revocation "without prejudice," repeated probation extensions, transfer, and eventually termination relying on largely unsubstantiated performance memos. The Court found the bank never actually held the disciplinary inquiry it had reserved the right to conduct, and instead used "unsatisfactory performance" as a pretext to sidestep that process. It held that what cannot be done directly (dismissing for misconduct without an inquiry) cannot be done indirectly through a disguised performance-based termination, and so upheld the finding that the termination was legally unsustainable. However, taking account of the peculiar facts, the Court modified the relief to 50% back wages (rather than full reinstatement benefits) from termination up to the date of superannuation, with all directions to be complied with by the now-substituted Bank of Baroda.
An employer cannot use a "performance" label to terminate a probationer when the real basis is misconduct. If misconduct is genuinely the foundation of a dismissal, the employer must follow proper disciplinary inquiry procedure, and courts will look past the formal wording of a termination order to its real substance.
