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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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 agreed to buy a solar power company from the respondents under a Share Purchase Agreement (2018) worth Rs. 29 crore, which contained an arbitration clause. Later, a Tripartite Agreement (2019) was signed involving a financier (IFCI Venture Capital) and the appellant's affiliate company, followed by an Addendum, to help resolve outstanding loan dues. When disputes arose over the sale, the appellant invoked arbitration under the original Share Purchase Agreement, but the respondents argued that agreement had been "novated" (replaced) by the later Tripartite Agreement, which contained no arbitration clause. The Telangana High Court agreed with the respondents and dismissed the appellant's application to appoint an arbitrator, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that under settled law (drawing on National Insurance Co. v. Boghara Polyfab and Vidya Drolia v. Durga Trading), a court hearing a Section 11(6) application for appointing an arbitrator should only decide narrow threshold issues (like whether an arbitration agreement exists) and must leave disputed factual questions, including whether a contract has been "novated" or replaced by a later one, to the Arbitral Tribunal itself, since that goes to the merits of the dispute. The High Court had overstepped by deciding the contested novation issue itself instead of referring it to arbitration. The Supreme Court therefore set aside the High Court's judgment, allowed the appeal, and directly appointed a named former Supreme Court judge as sole arbitrator to decide the dispute, leaving all contentions, including the novation question, open for the parties to argue before the Arbitral Tribunal.
When deciding whether to appoint an arbitrator, courts must not decide contested factual issues that go to the merits of the dispute (such as whether an earlier contract was replaced by a later one): such questions belong to the arbitrator, and a party cannot be denied arbitration merely because the other side disputes whether the arbitration agreement still survives.
