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.
In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular directing all banks and financial institutions it regulates to stop providing banking services to any person or business dealing in virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies) such as Bitcoin, and to exit existing relationships with such customers. Industry bodies representing online businesses, along with cryptocurrency exchanges and individual traders, many of them young tech entrepreneurs, challenged the circular, arguing it effectively shut down a lawful business (since virtual currencies were not banned by any Indian law) by cutting off its access to banking.
The Supreme Court set aside RBI's circular, holding that while RBI undoubtedly has wide power to take preventive and precautionary regulatory measures to protect the banking system, any such restriction must be proportionate to an actual, demonstrated risk. The Court found that RBI could not point to a single instance where any bank or entity it regulates had suffered real loss or harm on account of providing services to virtual currency exchanges, and separately noted that the Government of India itself, despite multiple expert committees and draft bills over several years, had never actually banned virtual currencies. Since the trading activity was lawful and RBI had not shown that a less drastic measure was inadequate, cutting off the entire sector's banking lifeline was found disproportionate and in violation of Article 19(1)(g). The Court also separately directed RBI to have a specific petitioner company's frozen bank account released with interest, since RBI admitted it had never actually ordered that account frozen.
A regulator with wide statutory powers cannot impose a blanket restriction on a lawful business merely as a precaution: it must show concrete evidence of harm, and any restriction must be proportionate to that harm, or courts can strike it down as unconstitutional.
