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.
The appellant, who suffers from the learning disability "Dyscalculia," sought a court direction that IIT Bombay admit her to its Master of Design (M.Des) course in the 2013 batch. Under the Bombay High Court's interim orders, she was in fact admitted and went on to successfully complete the entire course. However, when the writ petition was finally heard, the High Court held that her claim of entitlement under the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 was not made out, and that it lacked the power under Article 226 to formally declare her as having passed the M.Des programme, leaving her in the awkward position of having completed a course without a valid qualification.
The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court's legal findings on the merits of the 1995 Act claim, and did not go into whether her entitlement might now be reconsidered under the successor 2016 Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. However, since she had already completed the entire course in good faith under the Court's own interim orders, the Supreme Court invoked its special constitutional power under Article 142 (to do complete justice) to declare that she had successfully completed the Master in Design course and that her qualification would be valid for all purposes going forward. It directed IIT Bombay to hand over her degree and testimonials within four weeks.
Even where a litigant loses on the underlying legal question, the Supreme Court can use its Article 142 power to prevent an unjust or absurd outcome: here, ensuring a student who had genuinely and successfully completed a full course of study under the Court's own interim protection was not left without a valid degree merely because of how the litigation over her original entitlement turned out.
