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.
In 1991, the Goa government offered a 25% electricity tariff rebate to industries availing power supply, valid for five years from connection. This notification was rescinded in 1995, then briefly revived through two later notifications that were subsequently declared void by the courts. Several industrial companies, including Puja Ferro Alloys, received their power connections only after the original 1991 notification had already been rescinded, yet claimed entitlement to the rebate. When the State later demanded recovery of rebate amounts already paid out (under a 2002 recovery law), the companies challenged the demand notices, and after losing before the High Court, appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that because the companies received their power connections after 1 April 1995, the date the original 1991 rebate notification stood rescinded, they were never actually entitled to the rebate under that notification in the first place. It also found that this exact issue had already been conclusively decided against similarly-placed companies in an earlier round of litigation (the GR Ispat case), which had reached finality after this Court declined to interfere; the doctrine of res judicata therefore barred the companies from re-litigating the same question. The Court also rejected the companies' promissory estoppel argument, holding that the government's withdrawal of the rebate was justified by overriding public interest (financial constraints), which defeats an estoppel claim.
Once a legal question has been finally decided between parties (or on the same facts) and that decision has become final by not being successfully appealed, the same parties cannot reopen it in later litigation, and a government's promise of a subsidy or incentive can still be withdrawn if genuine public interest requires it.
