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 petitioners, a corporate debtor company and its directors, faced multiple criminal complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (cheque dishonour) filed by the respondent bank. After the National Company Law Tribunal approved a Resolution Plan for the company under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the petitioners sought a writ to quash these pending criminal complaints, arguing that the approved resolution plan (which included the bank's dues) should wipe out the pending prosecutions. A connected older writ petition (W.P.(C) No. 300 of 2020) raised the same point.
The Court relied on its earlier three-judge bench decision in P. Mohanraj v. Shah Brothers Ispat Private Limited, (2021) 6 SCC 258, which held that the moratorium under Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code protects only the corporate debtor itself, not the individual directors, who remain statutorily liable under Section 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The Court held that approval of a resolution plan does not automatically extinguish pending Section 138/141 prosecutions against the directors, and found the position in P. Mohanraj directly applicable and conclusive. Both writ petitions were accordingly dismissed.
Approval of a company's insolvency resolution plan protects the company from further liability but does not shield its directors from personal criminal liability for cheques dishonoured before the moratorium: directors cannot rely on the company's insolvency proceedings to escape a Section 138 prosecution against themselves.
