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.
Following a 2022 Karnataka government recruitment notification for 15,000 Graduate Primary Teacher posts, a provisional select list published in November 2022 excluded certain married female OBC candidates because they had submitted caste-and-income certificates in their father's name rather than their husband's. Some affected candidates challenged the exclusion before the Karnataka High Court, while others were directed by a different bench of the same High Court to approach the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) instead. A Single Judge of the High Court entertained one such writ petition and ruled on the merits, but a Division Bench later set that aside, holding the writ petitions not maintainable and relegating the matter to the KSAT, prompting this batch of cross-appeals to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court examined the statutory powers of the KSAT under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 and found it fully equipped (through its rules on procedure, contempt, and review) to effectively and holistically adjudicate the recruitment dispute, so the Division Bench was right to hold the writ petitions not maintainable and to send the matter to the KSAT instead. The Court also rejected the plea to revive the original provisional select list, noting that a mere provisional list confers no vested right on candidates named in it and reviving it would create confusion. The entire batch of appeals was accordingly dismissed, with earlier interim directions of the Supreme Court made absolute and 500 reserved posts to be filled strictly per the KSAT's eventual final judgment; the Court expressly confined itself to the maintainability question and did not decide the underlying merits.
Where a specialised tribunal like a State Administrative Tribunal has full statutory power to adjudicate a service dispute, courts will insist that aggrieved candidates go through that tribunal rather than the writ court; and being on a merely provisional (not final) select list does not by itself create an enforceable right to a post.
