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.
Adani Power Rajasthan Limited (APRL) supplied electricity to Rajasthan's distribution companies ("Rajasthan Discoms") under a 2010 Power Purchase Agreement that primarily contemplated domestic coal as fuel, with imported coal as a backup. When domestic coal linkage proved insufficient, APRL had to rely on costlier imported coal from Indonesia and sought compensation, a dispute that was finally decided by a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in 2020 (with the Discoms' review petitions later dismissed). APRL then filed a miscellaneous application seeking a direction for payment of Rs. 1,376.35 crore towards Late Payment Surcharge (LPS), relying partly on observations made in earlier contempt proceedings.
The Supreme Court held that a miscellaneous application filed in connection with appeals that had already been finally and conclusively decided was not the appropriate legal vehicle to raise a fresh substantive claim for LPS payment, especially since APRL itself had never filed a review petition against the original 2020 judgment. The Court noted that an earlier contempt bench had also declined to address the LPS issue since it fell outside the scope of the contempt proceedings, and clarified that prima facie observations made at an interim stage of the present proceedings did not amount to a finding that the application was maintainable. It dismissed the application as not maintainable and imposed costs of Rs. 50,000 on APRL for repeatedly listing the matter.
Once a set of appeals has been finally and conclusively decided by the courts, a party cannot use a miscellaneous application to reopen or add fresh substantive claims: the proper remedy (such as a review petition) must be pursued within the appropriate procedural framework and timeline.
