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 parties had a Collaboration Agreement and later Addendum Agreement for developing a residential colony in Gurugram. A dispute arose over alleged non-compliance by Emaar, and the original applicants (Tarun Aggarwal Projects LLP) sought appointment of an arbitrator. Emaar opposed, arguing the dispute actually fell under a separate clause (Clause 36) of the agreement that required court enforcement, not arbitration under Clause 37. The Delhi High Court nevertheless appointed arbitrators without first deciding whether the dispute fell under Clause 36, and Emaar appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Court held that where a party specifically pleads that the dispute is covered by a carve-out clause making it non-arbitrable, the referral court must hold at least a preliminary/prima facie inquiry into that question before appointing arbitrators. It cannot simply appoint arbitrators without examining whether the dispute is arbitrable at all. Relying on its earlier rulings (including Vidya Drolia) on who decides arbitrability, the Court found the High Court had skipped this necessary preliminary inquiry. It therefore set aside the High Court's order appointing arbitrators and sent the matter back to the High Court to conduct that preliminary inquiry and decide afresh.
Before parties can be sent to arbitration, a court asked to appoint an arbitrator must first satisfy itself, even on a limited prima facie basis, that the dispute is actually arbitrable under the contract: simply pointing to a general arbitration clause is not enough if the contract also carves out certain disputes for the regular courts.
