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.
Two NEET-PG candidates had applied for postgraduate medical/dental seats in Rajasthan under the "NRI quota," a reserved category private colleges can offer. A private college and the state counselling board later dropped the NRI quota altogether and merged those seats into the general "management quota," after the candidates had already submitted their documents and committed to that path. A single judge of the Rajasthan High Court ordered the candidates be admitted under the NRI quota, but a Division Bench reversed this, holding that colleges are free to decide whether to offer an NRI quota at all. Several other students who had meanwhile received admissions (some as a result of the single judge's order, some after the Division Bench's reversal) also joined as parties.
The Supreme Court agreed that private colleges are not legally bound to offer a fixed 15% NRI quota: that quota is a discretionary option, not a mandatory entitlement, under the Court's own precedent in P.A. Inamdar. It also held that the single judge had gone too far by directly ordering admission of specific candidates rather than merely requiring their cases be considered. However, the Court found it unfair that the college changed its policy at the very last moment, after NRI candidates had already submitted verification documents and committed to that quota in reliance on the published schedule. To balance these competing equities, the Court ordered a special, limited round of counselling confined only to the already-filled seats, to be conducted strictly on merit among genuine NRI applicants, with displaced candidates to be accommodated in other disciplines or refunded.
Educational institutions have discretion over whether to offer category-based quotas like the NRI quota, but once students have relied on an announced admission process and taken concrete steps (like submitting documents) under it, a last-minute policy reversal that blindsides them can be struck down as unfair, even if the underlying policy change itself would otherwise have been lawful.
