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 and her sister jointly inherited a property from their father. The appellant gave her sister a general Power of Attorney in 1971 (later cancelled in 1985), but in the meantime the sister sold parts of the property to third parties who eventually sold it on to the respondent Diocese. The appellant sued for partition of her half-share, and the trial court ruled in her favour, holding the Power of Attorney never actually authorized a sale. The Kerala High Court reversed this on appeal, holding that the appellant was deemed to have "constructive notice" of the sale and had lost her right to challenge it by not seeking cancellation of the sale documents in time.
The Supreme Court held that the Power of Attorney document, though it expressly empowered the agent (the sister) to lease the property and to mortgage it for loans, contained no clause authorizing her to sell it, and a power to sell cannot simply be inferred or read into a Power of Attorney. Since the sister had no authority to sell, her sale was invalid, and under the basic legal principle "nemo dat quod non habet" (no one can give what they don't have), the buyers who purchased from her, and in turn the respondent Diocese who bought from them, never acquired valid title either. The Court found the High Court had wrongly invoked "constructive notice" under Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act against the appellant (the principal), when in law an agent's unauthorized sale does not amount to the principal losing possession or being deemed aware of it; it also held that a plaintiff seeking partition need not always first sue to cancel the unauthorized sale deeds. The trial court's decree restoring the appellant's rightful half-share was reinstated.
A Power of Attorney must expressly and specifically authorize a sale. Courts will not infer a power to sell from general clauses about leasing, borrowing, or signing documents; and a buyer who does not verify this exposes themselves to losing the property even after paying for it, since no one can pass on a better title than they themselves hold.
