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.
A long-running dispute arose out of a 2004 Bihar Police Sub-Inspector recruitment drive that saw repeated rounds of litigation, re-examinations, and court-ordered selection processes over more than a decade. A group of candidates who had either skipped or failed the physical efficiency test for a later 299-post selection round filed writ petitions, demanding appointment on par with 133 other candidates who had been exempted from re-taking the physical test and directly appointed by an earlier Supreme Court order.
The Supreme Court dismissed all the writ petitions. It noted that the exemption given to the 133 candidates had been granted under the Court's special constitutional power (Article 142) specifically to bring closure to very old litigation, and that very order had expressly stated it must not be treated as a precedent for anyone else. The petitioners, by contrast, had either not appeared for the physical test at all or had appeared and failed it, so they could not claim equal treatment with a legally distinguishable group. The Court also noted an earlier order had already warned these candidates that rejection of their representations would not entitle them to further litigation.
A one-off relief that a court grants to a specific small group "in the interest of justice," and expressly declares will not be a precedent, cannot later be claimed by others as a matter of equal right, especially when those others did not actually clear the same eligibility requirements.
