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.
Sudera Realty had leased the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of a Kolkata building to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for 21 years starting from the date possession was handed over. After the lease period expired, IOC allegedly stayed in wrongful possession for several more years before finally vacating in 1994. Sudera Realty sued for mesne profits (compensation for the value of wrongful occupation) at the rate of Rs.31 per square foot per month, and the trial court and, on appeal, the Calcutta High Court's Division Bench (with some modification to the start date of the lease) ruled largely in the landlord's favour. IOC appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing among other things that its possession was not "wrongful" and that a large part of the claim was time-barred under Article 51 of the Limitation Act.
The Supreme Court held that a valid registered lease did exist from 1968/1969, that IOC became a "tenant at sufferance" once the 21-year term expired (with no fresh tenancy created merely by the landlord's without-prejudice acceptance of occupation charges), and that IOC was therefore liable to pay damages for unauthorised occupation. On limitation, the Court held that the landlord's claim was not for "profits" strictly within the meaning of Article 51 of the Limitation Act (which requires proving actual profits received by the wrongful occupant) but was really a claim for damages measured by the rent the landlord could have earned by re-letting the premises: a claim governed instead by the residuary Article 113, which has a longer limitation period. Finding no merit in IOC's appeals, the Court dismissed them, leaving each side to bear its own costs.
When a tenant overstays after a lease expires, merely continuing to pay and the landlord accepting money "without prejudice" does not create a new tenancy: the tenant becomes a tenant at sufferance liable for damages measured at market rate, and such a claim for damages for wrongful occupation is treated under the general (longer) limitation period rather than the shorter period for suits to recover specific "profits."
