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.
In its 2015 judgment in Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal N. Mistry, the Supreme Court had held that the RBI could not refuse to disclose inspection reports and other banking information under the RTI Act by claiming a "fiduciary relationship" with banks, since no such relationship in fact existed. This case combines three separate contempt petitions, including one by a petitioner seeking inspection reports of several major banks, alleging that the RBI continued withholding information even after that 2015 ruling, including by issuing a new internal "Disclosure Policy" in late 2016 that exempted broad categories of information from disclosure.
The Supreme Court held that the RBI's 2015 judgment was unambiguous: it had already rejected the fiduciary-relationship argument and directed disclosure of inspection reports and related material, subject only to the narrow national-security-type exceptions in paragraph 77 of that judgment. The Court found that the RBI's disclosure policy effectively re-created broad exemptions contrary to the Court's own directions, amounting to contempt, and also rejected the RBI's argument that only parties to the original 2015 judgment could bring a contempt petition, holding that general directions of the Court can be enforced by any aggrieved person. Rather than imposing punishment, the Court gave the RBI "a last opportunity" to withdraw the offending disclosure policy, directed it to furnish all information covered by the 2015 judgment (other than what falls under the paragraph 77 exceptions), and warned that any further violation would be viewed seriously, disposing of all three contempt petitions on these terms.
A public authority cannot evade a court's transparency directions by dressing up non-disclosure as an internal "policy", and contempt proceedings to enforce a public-interest ruling like an RTI disclosure order can be brought by any affected citizen, not only by the original parties to the case.
