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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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.
NTPC and SPML were in a contract dispute over Bank Guarantees that NTPC withheld even after SPML completed its work and received final payment. SPML went to the Delhi High Court seeking release of the guarantees; while that case was pending, the parties signed a Settlement Agreement in 2020 under which NTPC released the guarantees, SPML withdrew its case, and SPML agreed not to raise any further claims or seek arbitration. A few months after benefiting from the settlement, SPML reversed course, alleged the settlement had been signed under coercion and economic duress, and applied to the High Court to set up an arbitration tribunal to reopen the dispute. The High Court agreed and ordered arbitration; NTPC appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that when a court is asked under Section 11(6) of the Arbitration Act to appoint an arbitrator, it must undertake a limited "prima facie" screening and can refuse reference where the case is ex facie meritless or the dispute has already been genuinely settled. Examining the sequence of events, the Court found SPML's coercion claim to be an afterthought: SPML had made no coercion allegations while the Settlement Agreement was being negotiated or implemented, waited until it had reaped the settlement's benefits (getting the guarantees released and withdrawing its writ petition) before raising the plea, and never raised its large monetary claim during the life of the original contract. The High Court's order referring the matter to arbitration was set aside, and the appeal was allowed.
A party cannot enjoy the benefits of a negotiated settlement and then, later, cry coercion to escape its terms and revive disputes it had agreed to give up. Courts will look at the real timeline of events, not just the label put on a claim, before allowing a dispute to go to arbitration.
