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.
Respondent No. 1, a doctor, was provisionally allotted an MS (General Surgery) postgraduate seat at a Hyderabad medical college through the merit-based counselling process. She claimed she visited the college within the deadline to complete her admission formalities and pay fees, but the college denied her admission and later gave the seat to a candidate ranked about 2000 places below her. The Telangana High Court believed her account, found the college had acted illegally, and directed the National Medical Commission to create an additional seat for her; the Commission appealed that direction to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's factual finding that the college had wrongfully denied her admission: the college's own contradictory statements undermined its defence, and there was no valid justification for skipping over her in favour of a lower-ranked candidate. However, the Court held that directing a medical college to create an extra seat beyond its sanctioned intake capacity is not permissible, as this breaches binding Medical Council of India norms, so that part of the High Court's order could not stand. Applying the Court's own precedent on remedies for illegally denied medical admissions, it instead directed the college to pay her Rs. 10 lakh compensation for the lost academic year and guaranteed her a seat in the same course in the following academic year (2021-22) from the college's management quota.
Courts generally cannot order a medical college to exceed its officially sanctioned number of seats, even to remedy a proven wrong, but a student who is illegally denied an admission she rightfully earned is still entitled to meaningful redress, such as compensation plus a guaranteed seat the following year.
