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.
In 1983, Shivali Enterprises entered into an agreement to purchase land from the respondents-defendants for Rs. 2,900 per bigha, paying an initial earnest amount, with total payments eventually reaching Rs. 1,50,000 out of an agreed Rs. 1,65,000, and taking physical possession of the property. The sellers were required to first obtain an Income-Tax Clearance Certificate and correct revenue records (which mistakenly showed the Central Government as owner) before executing the final sale deed. When the sellers later tried to create third-party rights over the same land instead of completing the sale, the buyer filed a suit for specific performance. Both the trial court and the first appellate court ruled in the buyer's favour, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in second appeal, reversed those concurrent findings and instead directed the buyer to pay the present market value if it wanted the sale deed executed.
The Supreme Court held that a High Court hearing a second appeal cannot ordinarily disturb concurrent findings of fact by the trial court and first appellate court unless those findings are shown to be "perverse", based on wrong legal tests or mere conjecture, and the High Court here had made no such finding of perversity, so its interference was unjustified. The Court also held that the sellers could not "blow hot and cold" by claiming, on one hand, that the sale could not proceed until they themselves obtained the tax clearance and corrected the records, while simultaneously asserting a right to sell the land to someone else. Given the buyer had already paid over 90% of the price and was in possession, the Court restored the trial court's decree of specific performance, set aside the High Court's judgment, and upheld the original concurrent judgments of the trial and appellate courts.
A High Court cannot casually overturn matching findings of fact reached by two lower courts in a second appeal. It must specifically and explicitly find "perversity" in those findings; and a seller who accepts most of the purchase price and delays performance for their own reasons cannot then try to escape the sale by claiming a right to sell to someone else.
