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.
Mohit Kumar and Kiran Prajapati were candidates in a 2021 UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board (UPPRPB) drive for Sub-Inspector/Platoon Commander posts, and both were denied selection benefits because the caste (OBC) certificates they submitted were not in the specific format UPPRPB required. Mohit's writ petition against his non-selection was rejected by the High Court while Kiran succeeded before the High Court in a separate writ petition on similar facts, producing conflicting outcomes for the two candidates from the same recruitment process, which the State appealed.
The Supreme Court held that UPPRPB's requirement for OBC certificates to be issued in a specific prescribed format (clause 5.4(4) of the recruitment notification) was clear and unambiguous, and candidates had no reasonable excuse for not obtaining certificates in that format, especially since nothing prevented them from approaching the tehsildar for a correctly formatted certificate. The Court declined to treat the format requirement as a mere technicality that could be excused, and held that neither candidate was entitled to relief. It dismissed Mohit's appeal (upholding his non-selection) and allowed the State's connected appeal against Kiran (setting aside the relief she had earlier obtained), restoring consistency for both candidates from the same recruitment process.
Where a recruiting authority prescribes a specific document format as an eligibility condition and communicates it clearly, courts will not excuse non-compliance as a mere formality: candidates must ensure their supporting documents strictly match the required format, and cannot rely on other coordinate High Court decisions that were never tested on merits (i.e., SLPs dismissed at the admission stage) as binding precedent.
