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 Mumbai Municipal Corporation demolished eleven superstructures (shops/tenements) on a plot in Dahisar to widen a road, in what the Bombay High Court found was a "high-handed" manner without following due process, forcibly evicting the occupants. The High Court granted the landowner's family the right to apply for Transferable Development Rights (TDR) compensation and directed the Corporation to allot free alternative tenements of equal size to the displaced tenants. The Municipal Corporation challenged this common order through twelve separate special leave petitions, even though it had already conceded before the High Court that several of the claimants were entitled to relief.
The Supreme Court noted that the Corporation had already disposed of its objections to four tenants' claims in an earlier order (05.12.2018) after conceding their eligibility, and that it had further conceded eligibility for three more tenants in response to a fact-finding report from the Bombay High Court's Legal Services Committee, leaving only four tenants genuinely in dispute. On examining the record, the Court found that the High Court's factual findings, that the structures existed before 1961 and that the Corporation had acted high-handedly, were not perverse and could not be disturbed in a special leave petition. The Court held there were no grounds to interfere with the High Court's judgment and dismissed all the special leave petitions, including the lead petition concerning the landowner's TDR claim, with no order as to costs.
A municipal authority that demolishes structures without following due process can be directed to compensate or rehouse the displaced occupants, and the Supreme Court will not disturb a High Court's factual findings of high-handed action unless they are shown to be perverse.
