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 Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had leased plots to a company on a perpetual lease that barred the lessee from selling, transferring or parting with possession of the land without DDA's written consent, and allowed DDA to charge "unearned increase" (a share of the rise in the plot's value) on any such transfer. The original lessee company amalgamated with another company under a High Court-sanctioned scheme, and its properties, including the leased plots, vested in the new (transferee) company: the present appellant. When the appellant later sought DDA's permission to mortgage the plots, DDA demanded payment of unearned increase of over Rs. 2.13 crore, treating the amalgamation itself as a "transfer" attracting that liability. The appellant's writ petition and subsequent appeal against this demand were both dismissed by the Delhi High Court.
The Supreme Court held that the lease clause barring transfer without consent was broadly worded to cover "sale, transfer, assign or otherwise part with possession," and did not exclude transfers that happen through a court-sanctioned amalgamation scheme. Since the amalgamation was undertaken voluntarily by the companies' own petition (not an involuntary or operation-of-law transfer outside anyone's control), and the High Court's order vested the plots in the new company under Section 394 of the Companies Act, this squarely amounted to a "transfer" under the lease. Relying on its own earlier ruling in a similar demerger case (Nalwa Sons Investment), the Court held that DDA's policy of charging 50% unearned increase applied equally to a merger, since the transfer changes who legally holds the property even where no separate sale consideration changes hands. The Delhi High Court's dismissal of the appellant's challenge was upheld, and the amount already deposited with the Court under an earlier interim order was directed to be released to DDA with accrued interest.
A lease clause restricting "transfer" of property can extend to corporate restructurings like mergers or amalgamations, not just outright sales: a company acquiring leased property through amalgamation may still owe the landlord the contractually agreed share of the property's unearned increase in value.
