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.
Swaran Singh and Amar Singh were the two partners of Guru Nanak Industries, a Faridabad firm manufacturing printing machinery. Swaran Singh's side claimed Amar Singh had voluntarily retired in August 1988, accepted a cash settlement, and gone on to start a rival business, relying on a signed receipt. Amar Singh denied ever resigning, claimed the receipt had been tampered with (an extra sentence added later), and filed his own suit seeking dissolution of the partnership and a proper accounting. The trial court initially believed the receipt and ruled against Amar Singh, but the first appellate court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court both found the receipt had been manipulated and ruled in his favour.
The Supreme Court agreed with the appellate courts that the disputed receipt was unreliable and contradictory, and that other evidence (including an earlier joint letter to the bank) showed Amar Singh had not resigned but that the partners had mutually agreed to wind up the business. The Court drew a sharp legal distinction between "retirement" of a partner (where the firm continues) and "dissolution" of a firm (where accounts must be fully settled), and held that since there were only two partners, one partner's exit necessarily dissolves the firm altogether, because a partnership cannot exist with just one person. The appeals were dismissed, the lower courts' split of 60:40 in accounts was upheld, with only the dissolution date corrected to 24 August 1988, and the parties were given one final opportunity to settle through mediation before the final accounting proceeds.
In a two-person partnership, there is no such thing as one partner simply "retiring" while the firm carries on: legally, that exit dissolves the whole partnership, triggering a full and final settlement of accounts between both sides.
