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.
Transfer Petition (Criminal) · 2026 INSC 1060
Where a marriage has irretrievably broken down and the parties reach a genuine, voluntary settlement, including on alimony, the Supreme Court can use its Article 142 powers to grant a mutual-consent divorce and close out all related litigation in one stroke, without requiring the usual statutory waiting period.
Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 1061
In long-running, complex litigation involving apportioned government liabilities across states, the Supreme Court can use a mechanism like a retired-judge committee plus periodic compliance affidavits to bring genuine finality, including firm timelines, transparency obligations, and interest for delayed payment, rather than leaving matters open-ended.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1062
In an "as is where is" liquidation auction, a bidder who voluntarily accepts the auction terms cannot later resile from a forfeiture clause by citing regulatory caps or after-the-fact excuses for non-payment: courts will enforce the auction notice's own conditions.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8338-DB
Once someone is released from custody because the police failed to properly communicate the grounds of arrest, the police cannot simply re-arrest them by adding new charges: a specific, court-supervised procedure with senior-officer accountability must be followed, or the re-arrest itself becomes illegal.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8308
In economic-offence cases, bail can still be granted where the method used to quantify the alleged financial evasion is not adequately justified, and where the apprehension of re-offending is speculative rather than evidence-based.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8323
A parole claim must be backed by a genuine, verifiable application to the competent jail authority: courts will scrutinise irregularities like an incomplete address, an unexplained thumb mark, or reliance on a mere friend's affidavit rather than close family.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8337
Courts can grant short, strictly time-bound interim bail purely on humanitarian/compassionate grounds (such as caring for a seriously ill family member), even while a case remains pending trial and an earlier bail plea has failed.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8312
Courts will not repeatedly re-examine a bail plea already rejected on merits unless the applicant can point to a genuine change in circumstances since the earlier order.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8334
Under the no-fault compensation scheme for railway accidents, a valid ticket-holder injured while attempting to board a train, even carelessly, is generally entitled to compensation unless the railway can show a deliberate, conscious exposure to danger, not mere negligence.
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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 couple married in 2004 and lived in Canada, where a son was born in 2010. After the husband lost his job during a recession, the family returned to India in 2011; the wife soon left for her parental home and eventually returned to Canada with their son, refusing to reconcile despite the husband's attempts to contact her. The husband's divorce petition on grounds of cruelty and desertion was dismissed by the Family Court and the High Court, with the wife never appearing or contesting any stage of the proceedings, including before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that the couple had lived completely apart for about 13 years with no contact whatsoever, and that the wife had not responded even to the Supreme Court's own notice, indicating she was no longer interested in continuing the marriage. Relying on its earlier ruling in Shilpa Sailesh v. Varun Sreenivasan, which held that the Supreme Court may use its special constitutional power under Article 142(1) to grant a divorce for irretrievable breakdown even without both parties' consent, the Court held this was a fit case to exercise that discretion. It allowed the appeal and dissolved the marriage by a decree of divorce.
The Supreme Court can dissolve a marriage on the ground that it has irretrievably broken down, using its special "complete justice" power under Article 142 of the Constitution, even where the other spouse never consents or even participates, but this is treated as a careful, fact-specific discretion, not an automatic right after any period of separation.
