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.
Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL) was one of the "dirty dozen" large corporate defaulters identified by the RBI in 2017, and insolvency proceedings against it were admitted before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on a petition by Punjab National Bank. After a competitive bidding process among thirteen potential resolution applicants, JSW Steel Ltd.'s plan was approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and, subject to conditions, by the NCLT in September 2019. A CBI FIR and an Enforcement Directorate money-laundering case were also registered against BPSL and its erstwhile promoters around this time. This judgment decides a batch of six appeals filed by BPSL's erstwhile promoters, an operational creditor (Jaldhi Overseas), and two other operational creditors (Medi Carrier and CJ Darcl Logistics) against the common NCLAT order that upheld the JSW resolution plan.
The Supreme Court dismissed all the appeals and upheld the NCLAT's judgment approving JSW Steel's resolution plan. It held that the erstwhile promoters had no locus to challenge the CoC's commercial decisions once a resolution plan is approved, since Supreme Court precedent (K. Sashidhar) makes the CoC's commercial wisdom non-justiciable except on the narrow statutory grounds. The Court rejected arguments about delay in implementing the plan, alleged illegal clauses extending the implementation timeline, and disputes over how EBITDA earned during the delay should be distributed, noting that the resolution request documents never provided for EBITDA distribution and that reopening settled issues at this late stage would undermine the finality the IBC guarantees to approved plans. It similarly rejected Jaldhi's claim to be treated as more than a contingent creditor and Medi/Darcl's claims for pre-CIRP dues, finding no evidence the CoC had approved such payments. The Court emphasized that BPSL had been transformed from a loss-making company into a profitable, going concern under JSW's stewardship, and reopening the plan now would open a "Pandora's Box" defeating the IBC's purpose.
Once a resolution plan is approved by the Committee of Creditors and the NCLT under the IBC, courts will not second-guess the CoC's commercial decisions or allow new claims (like disputes over profits earned after resolution, or dues not part of the approved plan) to be raised belatedly: finality of an approved resolution plan is central to how India's insolvency law is meant to work.
