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.
A childless man, Sanjhi Ram, lived with his nephew Gopal Krishan and executed a Will in Gopal Krishan's favour the day before he died in 1990. Other relatives sued, claiming the Will was forged, and the trial court agreed it was suspicious. The first appellate court upheld the Will, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court reversed again, holding it was not proved because the attesting witness never said he saw the thumb impression put "by the direction of the testator": a phrase used in Section 63(c) of the Succession Act.
The Supreme Court held that Section 63(c) lists three alternative ways attestation can be proved, joined by the word "or": a witness only needs to have seen the testator himself sign or affix his mark, OR seen someone else sign at the testator's direction, OR received a personal acknowledgment from the testator. Here, the attesting witness clearly testified he saw Sanjhi Ram himself put his thumb mark on the Will, which independently satisfied the first alternative; the "direction of the testator" requirement only matters when someone else signs on the testator's behalf. The High Court had wrongly treated the requirements as cumulative rather than alternative, so the Will was held valid and the appeal was allowed.
To prove a Will's execution, a witness generally only needs to satisfy one of the three routes set out in Section 63(c) of the Succession Act. Courts should not read the law's "or" as if it were "and" and demand proof of every alternative at once.
