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.
J. Sekar Reddy, managing partner of a sand-mining firm, had deposited a large amount of money (over Rs. 312 crore) across bank accounts. During the 2016 demonetisation period, the Income Tax Department raided his premises and seized over Rs. 106 crore in cash (much of it in newly-introduced Rs. 2000 notes) and a large quantity of gold. The CBI registered a case (the "schedule offence") against him, but this was later closed for want of evidence, and separate FIRs on the same allegations were also quashed by the High Court. Despite this, the Enforcement Directorate continued to prosecute him for money laundering under the PMLA, arguing that money laundering is an independent offence. The Madras High Court refused to quash the PMLA proceedings, and Sekar Reddy appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and quashed the PMLA proceedings against him. It held that while money laundering is technically a distinct offence from the underlying "scheduled offence," a valid scheduled offence must still exist as its foundation, and here, the CBI itself had closed its case for lack of evidence, related FIRs had been quashed, and even the Income Tax Department's own report had found no evidence of wrongdoing. After more than five years, the Enforcement Directorate had still failed to produce any material capable of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt. Relying on its earlier rulings in Radheshyam Kejriwal and Ashoo Surendranath Tewari, the Court held that continuing the prosecution in these circumstances was unjustified, since a person remains presumed innocent until proven guilty and cannot be kept indefinitely under prosecution on an unproven foundation.
A money-laundering prosecution cannot indefinitely continue in a vacuum. If the underlying criminal case it depends on has been closed for lack of evidence and no independent evidence of laundering exists after a reasonable passage of time, courts can and will quash the proceedings to prevent prolonged, baseless prosecution.
