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.
Harshad Gupta was convicted by an Additional Sessions Judge in April 2015 on charges under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Before he could be heard on his sentence, he sought and was granted adjournments due to an accident, and in the meantime the judge who had convicted him was transferred and replaced by a new judge. Gupta then approached the High Court, arguing that the new judge should re-hear the entire case, including the question of his guilt, not just decide his sentence. The High Court rejected this and directed the new judge to proceed only to hear him on sentencing. Gupta appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the High Court's ruling. It held that Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure creates two separate, sequential steps: first, a judgment on guilt or innocence (Section 235(1)), and second, if convicted, a separate hearing and order on sentence (Section 235(2)). Once a valid judgment of conviction has been properly pronounced (as it was here, read out in open court in the presence of the accused's counsel) the trial court becomes "functus officio" (has no more power to act) on the question of guilt; only the sentencing step remains open. A change in the presiding judge after conviction does not revive or reopen the finality of the conviction: the successor judge's job is limited to hearing the accused on sentence and passing an appropriate order.
Once a criminal court has validly pronounced a judgment of conviction, that finding of guilt is final and cannot be reopened simply because the judge is later transferred, only the separate, later step of deciding the punishment remains to be completed by whoever succeeds to that court.
