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.
The appellant's brother, Ravi Prakash, was shot dead in 1992, allegedly by three men over a pre-existing enmity linked to a newspaper report critical of one of the accused. The trial court convicted three of the four accused based on the testimony of the complainant (the victim's brother) and another eyewitness, sentencing them to life imprisonment. The Allahabad High Court later reversed this, acquitting all three accused after finding the prosecution's version riddled with inconsistencies, and both the original complainant and the State of Uttar Pradesh appealed that acquittal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court undertook its own independent re-appreciation of the evidence and agreed with the High Court's doubts about the prosecution's case: the alleged "chance" presence of the second eyewitness was unexplained and suspicious, the victim's trip to buy gutkha from a farther shop instead of a nearer one was never satisfactorily explained, there were unexplained inconsistencies between the oral testimony and the medical evidence (including an unexplained fourth gunshot wound), and crucial physical evidence such as spent cartridge cases and the murder weapons were never recovered despite prompt investigation. Applying the settled principle that an appellate court should not disturb an acquittal unless the High Court's findings are perverse or suffer from a glaring infirmity, the Supreme Court found no such infirmity and held the acquittal was properly reasoned. Both appeals (by the complainant and by the State) were dismissed and the acquittal was affirmed.
An appellate court, including the Supreme Court, will not overturn a reasoned acquittal merely because another view of the evidence is possible: it must find the acquitting court's reasoning genuinely perverse or unsupportable, which keeps the benefit of the doubt firmly with an accused once properly acquitted.
