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, formerly employed as domestic help in the respondent's home, alleged the respondent established a sexual relationship with her on the pretext of marriage; they later married in 2016, and a child was born the same year. The marriage soon broke down, and the appellant filed for maintenance for herself and the child under the Domestic Violence Act. The respondent sought a DNA test to establish paternity, and the resulting report, which the appellant consented to and never disputed, found he was not the biological father, leading the Trial Court and First Appellate Court to deny maintenance for the child; the Delhi High Court upheld this, and the mother appealed to the Supreme Court on the ground that the conclusive presumption of legitimacy under Section 112 of the Evidence Act should have protected the child's claim.
The Supreme Court surveyed its precedents on DNA evidence versus the statutory presumption of legitimacy, noting a consistent judicial hesitation to order DNA tests but holding that once a DNA test has actually been conducted (especially with the mother's consent and without any subsequent challenge to its result), its findings cannot be ignored in favour of the presumption, following the earlier ruling in Nandlal Wasudeo Badwaik v. Lata Nandlal Badwaik. Since the appellant had consented to the DNA test and never disputed the result, which had attained finality, the Court found no error in the High Court's decision denying maintenance from the respondent. The Court dismissed the appeal, but separately, expressing concern for the child's welfare irrespective of the paternity/maintenance dispute, directed the Delhi government's Women and Child Development department to depute an officer to check on the child's living conditions, education, nutrition, and health, and to take remedial steps if anything was found lacking.
Where a DNA test has actually been conducted with a party's consent and its result is never challenged, courts will rely on that scientific finding over the general legal presumption of legitimacy, consenting to a paternity test and later attempting to invoke the presumption to override an unfavourable, unchallenged result will not succeed.
