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.
Mitra Guha Builders had two construction contracts with ONGC, each delayed well beyond the agreed completion date. The contractor invoked arbitration seeking payment of its final bills and other claims, while ONGC sought to recover liquidated damages for the delay under Clause 2 of the contract, which made the Superintending Engineer's decision on such compensation "final." The arbitrator disallowed ONGC's liquidated damages as a disguised penalty and the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court upheld this, but the Division Bench reversed, holding that liquidated damages under Clause 2 were an "excepted matter" outside the arbitrator's jurisdiction. The contractor then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that Clause 2 of the contract was a complete, self-contained mechanism under which the Superintending Engineer alone could determine and levy compensation for delay, and the clause expressly made that decision final, meaning it was excluded from arbitration under the separate arbitration clause (Clause 25). Relying on its own earlier precedent in Vishwanath Sood v. Union of India, which dealt with an identically worded clause, the Court held that such "excepted matters," where the contract itself names a specific adjudicator and gives finality to that decision, cannot be reopened before an arbitrator. It distinguished a line of cases (like the BSNL v. Motorola case) where the clause only provided for quantifying damages without separately deciding fault for the delay. The Court therefore upheld the Division Bench's ruling that the arbitrator had exceeded his jurisdiction by disallowing ONGC's liquidated damages, and dismissed the contractor's appeals, directing settlement of the deposited amounts accordingly.
When a government contract names a specific official (such as a Superintending Engineer) to decide a particular issue and declares that decision final, that issue becomes an "excepted matter" outside the arbitrator's jurisdiction: parties cannot later route such disputes through arbitration no matter how unfair the outcome may seem.
