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.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1073
In circumstantial-evidence cases, forensic and DNA evidence must actually corroborate the alleged crime: a conviction cannot survive where the most crucial scientific evidence, on its own terms, points away from rather than toward the prosecution's theory.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1074
A conviction based purely on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain, timeline, witness credibility, forensic matches, and motive, to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; gaps or suppressed evidence at any link entitle the accused to the benefit of the doubt, even in a serious case like a double murder.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8505
Courts will not quash a criminal case merely because the accused has a plausible alibi-type defence; unless that defence is conclusive and undisputed, the matter must be tested through the ordinary trial process.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8547
A private compromise between victim and accused cannot by itself secure quashing of a case involving serious, heinous allegations like attempted murder with a weapon: such matters must proceed to trial regardless of settlement.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8563
Railway Claims Tribunals cannot reject a bona fide passenger's death claim based on speculative inferences when there is no direct evidence of an alternative cause of death; the compensation scheme under the Railways Act is to be interpreted generously in favour of victims' families.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8559
In matrimonial offences, courts can and do quash criminal proceedings once a genuine compromise is verified directly with the complainant, sparing both parties a prolonged and pointless trial.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8541
A co-accused's bail does not automatically extend to another accused where their actual roles in the offence differ materially; delay caused by one's own defence counsel cannot later be used as a ground for bail.
Execution Petition · 2026:DHC:8567
An arbitral award must be adequately stamped before a court can enforce it; courts give only a limited window to cure such defects, after which the award becomes legally unusable until the deficiency is fixed.
Arbitration Petition · 2026:DHC:8555
A genuine settlement reached through mediation renders a pending arbitration-related court petition moot, allowing parties to close out litigation quickly once they resolve their dispute privately.
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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.
The Maharashtra Public Service Commission had advertised posts of Assistant Commissioner (Drugs) and Drug Inspectors, prescribing a pharmacy/pharmaceutical science degree plus practical experience in manufacturing or testing of drugs as the essential qualification, with research experience in a laboratory treated only as a "preferred" extra qualification. Some candidates with only research-laboratory experience (no manufacturing-line experience) were nonetheless allowed to compete and were later held eligible by the High Court, prompting the Commission to appeal. The Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal had originally held such candidates ineligible, but the High Court reversed that view in multiple writ petitions.
The Supreme Court held that it is for the employer, not the courts, to define essential versus desirable/preferential qualifications in a recruitment advertisement, and that courts cannot re-interpret a "preference" clause as if it created an independent essential eligibility. Testing of drugs in a research and development laboratory is fundamentally different from testing carried out during actual drug manufacture, so the two cannot be treated as equivalent. The Court restored the Tribunal's view, held the High Court's interpretation of the advertisement to be erroneous, set aside the High Court's judgments, and allowed the Commission's appeals with no order as to costs.
When a government job advertisement separates an "essential" qualification from a merely "preferred" one, candidates who only hold the preferred qualification cannot claim they are automatically eligible: courts will generally defer to the employer's own plain wording of the advertisement rather than rewrite it.
