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.
The appellant was a director of a retail company ("Easy Day") whose Indore store was found selling biscuit packets that a Food Inspector alleged were mislabelled ("misbranded") under the old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) of 1954. The alleged violation occurred on 29 November 2010, after the newer Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006 had already brought some of its provisions into force (including its penalty clause for misbranding) but before the PFA itself was formally repealed in August 2011. The company director was prosecuted and the High Court refused to quash the case, so he appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that on the date of the alleged offence, both the older PFA (which allowed imprisonment for misbranding) and the newer FSSA's penalty provision (a monetary fine only, no jail) were simultaneously in force, creating a direct conflict for the same conduct. Punishing someone under both laws for the same act would amount to double jeopardy, prohibited under Article 20(2) of the Constitution. The Court held that Section 89 of the FSSA gives that Act an overriding effect over any inconsistent older food law, so once the FSSA's penalty provision (Section 52) was in force, it displaced the PFA's harsher criminal penalty for misbranding, meaning the accused could only be proceeded against under the FSSA's monetary-penalty route, not criminally prosecuted under the PFA. The High Court had wrongly found no inconsistency between the two laws, so the Supreme Court set aside its order and quashed the criminal proceedings, while leaving open the possibility of penalty proceedings under the FSSA.
When two laws impose different penalties for the same conduct during a transition period between an old law and its replacement, the newer law's overriding clause controls: a person cannot be criminally prosecuted under a repealed-in-spirit law once a newer, overriding statute has already brought its own (even if lighter) penalty for the same act into force.
