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.
Narendra Hirawat and Co. (NHC) held licensing rights to exploit the films "Sholay" and "Sholay 3D" (and, in a connected case, 32 other films) under agreements with Sholay Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (SME) and Generation Three Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., later modified by a 2018 Deed of Settlement requiring NHC to pay further instalments. After NHC failed to pay the final instalment - which NHC said was because SME never issued the required invoice - SME terminated the licence and re-licensed the same films to a third party, Goldmines Telefilms. NHC sued for an injunction to stop this, and a single judge of the Bombay High Court granted interim relief in NHC's favour, which the High Court's own Division Bench then reversed on appeal.
The Supreme Court restored the single judge's injunction, holding that an appellate court should not readily overturn a trial judge's discretionary interim order unless it was shown to be perverse, arbitrary, or contrary to settled legal principles - which was not the case here. On the merits of the interim dispute, the Court found it undisputed that every previous instalment under the Deed of Settlement had been paid by NHC only after SME issued an invoice, so SME's sudden refusal to issue the final invoice (citing GST liability concerns) could not fairly be used as grounds to terminate the agreement for non-payment. Noting that NHC had already paid over 90% of the amount due and had deposited the remaining balance in court as directed, the Court held the balance of convenience and prima facie case favoured NHC, without deciding the final merits of the underlying contract dispute (which remains for trial). The third party's rights were also held bound by the injunction, since its agreement with SME was made while NHC's suit was already pending.
In a contract requiring staged payments against invoices, a party cannot be blamed for non-payment - and have the whole contract terminated - if the other side itself stopped issuing the invoices needed to trigger that payment; and appellate courts should be slow to disturb a trial court's well-reasoned interim injunction.
