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.
HARSAC, a Haryana government agency, had awarded a land-records digitisation contract to Pan India Consultants in 2011. When the contractor allegedly failed to complete the work on time, HARSAC invoked the contractor's bank guarantee, leading to litigation and eventually arbitration under the contract's dispute-resolution clause. The arbitral tribunal, which included HARSAC's own nominee, a senior IAS officer who was Principal Secretary to the Haryana Government, took over four years without pronouncing its award, despite twice recording that it was "ready to pronounce the award forthwith." Lower courts kept extending the tribunal's time to decide, and HARSAC challenged one such extension order before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that appointing a senior government officer with a controlling influence over HARSAC (itself a government nodal agency) as an arbitrator was invalid under Section 12(5) read with the Seventh Schedule of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996: a mandatory, non-waivable disqualification. Given the inordinate four-year delay with no award in sight, and with both parties consenting to a substitution, the Court exercised its power under Section 29A(6) of the Act to replace the entire tribunal with a sole arbitrator (a retired Supreme Court judge), directing the new arbitrator to continue from the stage already reached and deliver the award within six months.
An arbitrator who has a controlling or managerial link to one of the parties, even an employee nominated by a government body to arbitrate for that very body, can be disqualified under the law's mandatory conflict-of-interest rules, and courts can step in to replace a non-performing arbitral tribunal to prevent endless delay in dispute resolution.
