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.
The appellant, a US-based father, and his wife, both Indian nationals, had settled and had a son in the United States. In 2019, the mother travelled to India with the then-two-year-old child and decided not to return. The father obtained a custody order from a New Jersey court and then sought a habeas corpus writ from the Karnataka High Court, which ruled in his favour and allowed him to take the child back to the US, but attached two COVID-era conditions requiring health certificates from Indian and US medical authorities that were, in practice, impossible to obtain.
The Supreme Court appointed an amicus curiae to represent the mother, who had not entered an appearance, and learned through her that the mother did not wish to contest the matter. Examining the full case (not just the narrow challenge to the two conditions), the Court held that the child's welfare was paramount, since India is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on child abduction, a foreign court's custody order is only one factor, but here the US-born child had only briefly been in India and had not "put down roots," the father was heavily involved in his upbringing, and summary return to his home country served his interests. The Court struck down the two unworkable health-certificate conditions as serving no real purpose, while building in safeguards for the mother, video-call access, funded travel for her to visit the US, and an annual visit by the child to India, until a competent court decides custody more fully.
In cross-border custody disputes, Indian courts prioritise the concrete welfare of the child over rigid procedural conditions or even over the narrow scope of what was formally challenged in the appeal, and will fashion practical access arrangements for the parent left behind.
