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.
The appellant traded in Guar Gum products and claimed export incentives under the "Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojna" (Special Agricultural Produce Scheme) for goods it exported after purchasing them from a 100% Export Oriented Unit (EOU). A 2009 government circular clarified that 100% EOUs were ineligible for this incentive scheme, and the appellant's writ petition challenging that circular (as allegedly contrary to the underlying 2006 policy) was dismissed by the Rajasthan High Court. Three connected appeals involving the same policy and similarly-placed exporters were heard together.
The Supreme Court held that the 2009 circular did not amend or modify the notified scheme but merely clarified an existing ambiguity: that EOUs, already excluded from the incentive, could not indirectly obtain the benefit by routing exports through ordinary purchasers like the appellant. The Court found the government had validly reserved the right under the scheme's own terms to specify ineligible categories of exports from time to time, and that allowing the appellant's claim would defeat the scheme's purpose of denying incentives to EOUs. All four connected appeals were accordingly dismissed.
A government cannot be made to pay incentives to a business that is merely a conduit for an entity already excluded from a scheme; clarificatory circulars that remove ambiguity in a policy (as opposed to amending it) do not need to go through the same formal gazette-notification process as the policy itself.
