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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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.
Jaiprakash Associates Limited had imported Digital and Network Video Recorders in September 2023 and claimed a concessional customs duty rate. Later, while the company was going through Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the IBC, the Customs Department issued a show-cause notice alleging the company had wrongly availed a lower duty rate, and eventually confirmed a differential duty demand, interest, and penalty, even though this liability related to a transaction that occurred before the company's insolvency proceedings began, and the Customs Department had never filed a claim for it during the CIRP. By the time of this final order, the company's Resolution Plan had already been approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
The Court held that under Section 31(1) of the IBC, once a Resolution Plan is approved by the NCLT, it becomes binding on all creditors, including government departments, and any pre-insolvency claim that was not submitted during the CIRP stands extinguished. Since the customs liability arose from an import that took place well before the insolvency proceedings began, and the Customs Department admittedly never filed a claim before the Resolution Professional despite the public announcement inviting claims, the department could not later revive and enforce that claim after the Resolution Plan was approved. The Court distinguished this from cases where Customs Authorities can still determine (assess) a liability during an ongoing CIRP: that power exists, but it cannot be used to enforce recovery of a claim that was never submitted and got extinguished once the plan was approved. The Court accordingly quashed the customs order confirming the duty, interest, and penalty, without commenting on the merits of the underlying classification dispute.
Once a company's insolvency Resolution Plan is approved by the NCLT, creditors, including tax and customs authorities, lose the right to chase old, pre-insolvency dues that they failed to formally claim during the insolvency process; the law intends for the revived company to start with a "clean slate."
