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.
6171 more judgements for members
You're seeing the newest cases. Log in — it's free — to keep scrolling, search by name or judge, and filter by court or legal area.
Log in to see moreLegal Case Shots is built to help you quickly identify and understand relevant precedent. For citation in pleadings or filings, always verify against the full judgment PDF and current citation format (e.g., 2026 INSC ___).
The holding is what the court legally decided. The lesson learnt translates that into a practical takeaway: what a lawyer should factor into case strategy or client advice as a result of this precedent.
Both. Each case shows a distilled summary (case type, key holding, and lesson learnt) and links to the full judgment as a PDF for when you need the complete text for research or citation.
Yes. Use Advanced Filters to narrow results by decision date and by practice area, including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Service & Administrative Law, Family Law, Civil Property & Inheritance, and Labour & Industrial Law.
Yes. You can filter judgments by the judge or bench that decided the case, which is useful for tracking how a particular judge has reasoned on similar issues across multiple rulings.
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.
Carestream Health India imported "Dryview 6850 Laser Imagers" (printers that use dry laser technology to print diagnostic images (from machines like MRI, CT and ultrasound scanners) onto film) and classified them under Customs Tariff Heading (CTH) 9018 90 19 as "other diagnostic instruments and apparatus," attracting a lower duty rate. Customs authorities reclassified the imagers under the residuary CTH 9033 00 00 (unclassified parts/accessories for Chapter 90 machines), attracting a 2.5% higher duty rate and a resulting demand of Rs.5,21,616. The Assistant Commissioner, the Commissioner (Appeals), and the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal all ruled against the importer, who then appealed to the Supreme Court under Section 130E(b) of the Customs Act.
The Court held the laser imager has no independent diagnostic capability of its own, it merely receives data from diagnostic machines and prints it onto film, so it functions as an "accessory," not a "diagnostic apparatus" in its own right, ruling out direct classification under CTH 9018. Applying Chapter 90's classification Notes, the key question was whether Rule 2(b) (accessories used "solely or principally" with machines of one tariff heading are classified with those machines) or the residuary Rule 2(c) applied. Since the imager's own sales catalogue showed it was compatible not only with machines under CTH 9018 (MRI, ultrasound scanners) but also with machines under the separate CTH 9022 (CT scanners, X-ray apparatus) (which carry different, higher duty rates) the Court held Rule 2(b) could not apply because the accessory was not tied to a single tariff heading's machines. It therefore fell into the residuary CTH 9033, as the lower authorities and Tribunal had found, and the appeal was dismissed.
For customs classification purposes, an accessory that can be used interchangeably with machines falling under multiple different tariff headings (not just one), especially where the machines bear different duty rates, will generally be classified under a residuary "parts and accessories" heading rather than clubbed with any one machine's favorable classification: importers cannot claim the lowest applicable rate simply by asserting their product's dominant use.
