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.
RPS Infrastructure had won an arbitration award against a corporate debtor (KST Infrastructure) for a real-estate development dispute, but the debtor's challenge to that award was still pending when the debtor entered insolvency proceedings. The Resolution Professional invited claims through public newspaper notices, but RPS filed its claim 287 days after the deadline, only after the resolution plan had already been approved by the Committee of Creditors, and the claim was rejected as time-barred. RPS argued it was unaware of the insolvency proceedings and that its claim, being contingent on a pending arbitration appeal, should still have been factored in.
The Supreme Court held that public announcement of the CIRP through newspapers, as required under the IBC and its regulations, creates "deemed knowledge" for all creditors, including commercial entities like RPS: its claim of ignorance was not an acceptable excuse. The Resolution Professional had made genuine efforts to obtain the debtor's records (even filing a formal application for them) and could not be faulted for failing to include an undisclosed liability. Relying on its earlier ruling in Essar Steel, the Court held that allowing late claims after a resolution plan is approved would create endless uncertainty for resolution applicants, and dismissed the appeal.
Creditors and claimants must stay vigilant and act promptly once insolvency proceedings against a debtor are publicly announced. Courts will not entertain very late claims after a resolution plan has already been approved, even if the claimant later blames lack of actual notice.
