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.
6201 more judgements for members
You're seeing the newest cases. Log in — it's free — to keep scrolling, search by name or judge, and filter by court or legal area.
Log in to see moreLegal Case Shots is built to help you quickly identify and understand relevant precedent. For citation in pleadings or filings, always verify against the full judgment PDF and current citation format (e.g., 2026 INSC ___).
The holding is what the court legally decided. The lesson learnt translates that into a practical takeaway: what a lawyer should factor into case strategy or client advice as a result of this precedent.
Both. Each case shows a distilled summary (case type, key holding, and lesson learnt) and links to the full judgment as a PDF for when you need the complete text for research or citation.
Yes. Use Advanced Filters to narrow results by decision date and by practice area, including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Service & Administrative Law, Family Law, Civil Property & Inheritance, and Labour & Industrial Law.
Yes. You can filter judgments by the judge or bench that decided the case, which is useful for tracking how a particular judge has reasoned on similar issues across multiple rulings.
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.
URC Construction sought to enforce an arbitral award dated 26.03.2019 (corrected on 07.05.2019) awarding it roughly Rs 2.59 crore plus interest against the Airports Authority of India. The Court noticed that the award had originally been stamped with only Rs 100 in duty, and the decree holder only paid the balance stamp duty (Rs 25,850) shortly before the hearing: years after the award was signed. This raised a larger question the Court examined in detail: when must stamp duty actually be paid on an arbitral award, and can a decree holder simply pay the shortfall unilaterally, right before enforcement, without any penalty?
After an extensive review of the Indian Stamp Act and the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the Court held that the two statutes operate independently: enforcement of an award is not what triggers the stamp duty requirement; rather, stamp duty becomes due when the award is signed, and must ordinarily be paid within one month of signing. A Supreme Court ruling that objections to insufficient stamping cannot be raised at the award-challenge stage (Section 34) only defers when such an objection can be raised: it does not excuse late or penalty-free payment. The Court found it has no power to waive the statutory penalty for late stamping (that power lies only with the Collector of Stamps), and it is legally bound to "impound" (formally flag and set aside) any arbitral award that is not adequately stamped rather than simply act upon it. The Court impounded the award in this case, directed the decree holder to produce the original award before the Joint Registrar so the stamp-duty shortfall and penalty could be assessed by the Collector, and issued detailed, forward-looking practice directions for how all future enforcement petitions in the Delhi High Court must declare and prove stamp duty compliance.
Anyone relying on an arbitral award to recover money must ensure it is properly stamped within a month of the award being signed, waiting until enforcement to "cure" an underpaid stamp duty, without also paying the prescribed penalty, will not be accepted by the court, and the enforcement process can be held up until the Collector of Stamps assesses and resolves the deficiency.
