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.
7878 more judgements for members
You're seeing the newest cases. Log in — it's free — to keep scrolling, search by name or judge, and filter by court or legal area.
Log in to see moreLegal Case Shots is built to help you quickly identify and understand relevant precedent. For citation in pleadings or filings, always verify against the full judgment PDF and current citation format (e.g., 2026 INSC ___).
The holding is what the court legally decided. The lesson learnt translates that into a practical takeaway: what a lawyer should factor into case strategy or client advice as a result of this precedent.
Both. Each case shows a distilled summary (case type, key holding, and lesson learnt) and links to the full judgment as a PDF for when you need the complete text for research or citation.
Yes. Use Advanced Filters to narrow results by decision date and by practice area, including Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Service & Administrative Law, Family Law, Civil Property & Inheritance, and Labour & Industrial Law.
Yes. You can filter judgments by the judge or bench that decided the case, which is useful for tracking how a particular judge has reasoned on similar issues across multiple rulings.
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.
NBCC floated a group housing project in Gurgaon and allotted a flat to Shri Ram Trivedi in June 2012, promising to "endeavour" to hand over possession within two and a half years. Possession was delayed and actually handed over only in July 2018. The buyer approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which awarded him interest at 10% per annum on his deposited amount plus Rs 2 lakh for loss of rent and costs. NBCC appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the delay was due to force majeure and that its allotment letter capped compensation at a much lower contractual rate.
The Supreme Court held that a builder's promise to merely "endeavour" to deliver possession by a date still obliges it to make genuine efforts and to justify any failure, and cannot be read as giving it unfettered discretion over timing. It found the contractual compensation clause (Rs 2 per sq ft per month) one-sided and an unfair trade practice, since buyers faced 12% interest for delayed payments while the builder's liability was far lower: consistent with the Court's earlier rulings in Pioneer Urban v. Govindan Raghavan and DLF Southern Homes v. Arifur Rahman Khan. It rejected NBCC's force majeure defence (contractor disputes and boundary disputes are ordinary business risks, not force majeure), but reduced the NCDRC's interest rate from 10% to 7% per annum and adjusted the date from which it ran to 1 January 2016, and set aside the separate Rs 2,00,000 award for loss of rent since that would now be duplicative of the interest award.
A builder's "endeavour to complete" clause in an allotment letter is not a blank cheque for indefinite delay: courts will still hold developers to a reasonable completion timeline and strike down one-sided penalty clauses as unfair trade practices, even while moderating excessive compensation awarded below.
