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.
ONGC terminated a supply contract with Deep Industries, blocked the company from bidding on future contracts, and later blacklisted it for two years. Deep Industries challenged this before an arbitrator, who ruled he had jurisdiction to examine the blacklisting as well (rejecting ONGC's objection under Section 16 of the Arbitration Act) and separately granted interim relief under Section 17 suspending the blacklisting pending arbitration. ONGC's appeal against the Section 17 relief was rejected by the City Civil Court, so ONGC then went to the Gujarat High Court under Article 227 of the Constitution (its general supervisory power over subordinate courts and tribunals) and succeeded in getting the arbitrator's orders overturned, prompting Deep Industries to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the Arbitration Act, 1996 is a self-contained code that deliberately limits court interference with ongoing arbitration to specific, narrow situations, and allowing a High Court to freely use its general Article 227 supervisory power to second-guess interlocutory arbitral orders (like Section 16 or Section 17 orders) would defeat this scheme and cause exactly the kind of delay the Act is meant to avoid. Article 227 jurisdiction over such orders should be exercised only in truly exceptional cases of patent lack of jurisdiction or similar extreme illegality, not as a routine substitute for the limited appeal and revision remedies the Act itself provides, and ordinary revision petitions under the Code of Civil Procedure also cannot be used against merely interlocutory orders. Finding no such exceptional circumstance here, the Court set aside the Gujarat High Court's interference and allowed the appeal, directing the arbitration to proceed to its conclusion as expeditiously as possible.
Courts should be very reluctant to interrupt an ongoing arbitration by reviewing the arbitrator's interim or procedural rulings under their general supervisory powers; parties engaged in arbitration should generally let the arbitration run its course and raise their objections through the specific remedies the Arbitration Act itself provides, rather than detouring through separate High Court litigation.
