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.
Candidates were competing for appointment as "Gram Rojgar Sahayak" (village employment assistants) under a rural employment scheme in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, governed by statewide guidelines that did not list a computer-efficiency test as a selection criterion. Midway through the process, the local Collector's office added a computer-efficiency test via a revised schedule applicable only to that district, and some candidates who had initially been on the merit list were dropped from the select list after this test was introduced.
The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that introducing a new selection criterion (the computer test) after the process had already started, and only in one district under a scheme meant to apply uniformly across the state, was not permissible. It rejected the argument that candidates who appeared for the test without objecting were thereby barred from later challenging it, reasoning that the schedule never disclosed in advance that the test results would be used to screen out already-selected candidates. The appeals by the candidates who had benefited from the test were accordingly dismissed, upholding their exclusion.
A government body conducting a recruitment process cannot add a new, undisclosed eligibility test partway through and use it to disqualify candidates who had already qualified under the original published criteria; simply appearing for such a test does not stop a candidate from later contesting its use against them.
