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.
The appellant had filed and then withdrawn a civil recovery suit after settling with the defendant out of court. He later filed a separate execution petition based on a decree. It was later discovered that the withdrawn suit's court file had allegedly been tampered with (key documents were replaced with forged pages, including a bogus decree bearing a forged judge's signature and forged court stamps) and this forged decree was used to support the execution petition. A First Information Report was lodged against the appellant and court staff for forgery, cheating, and related offences. The appellant argued that since the alleged tampering concerned court records, cognizance of the case could only be taken on a formal complaint filed by the court itself under Section 195 of the CrPC, not on a police FIR.
The Supreme Court held that Section 195 CrPC's bar applies only to offences committed while a document is "in custodia legis" (i.e., still part of a live or legally ongoing court proceeding) and which directly affect the administration of justice. Once the civil suit was withdrawn and its file was archived in the record room, the proceeding had legally concluded: merely storing old documents in the record room does not keep them "in custodia legis" for this purpose. The Court found that the tampering occurred after the suit's conclusion and thus fell outside Section 195's bar, meaning the police FIR and ordinary criminal prosecution were valid and did not require a court complaint. It affirmed the High Court's dismissal of the appellant's challenge and upheld the criminal proceedings.
The special protection under Section 195 CrPC, which normally requires a court's own complaint before criminal proceedings can begin over interference with court records, does not extend to acts of forgery or tampering committed after a case has already concluded and its file has been archived; such acts can be prosecuted through an ordinary police complaint like any other criminal offence.
