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.
A landowner developing a residential layout near Pune had been granted non-agricultural use and building-plan approvals on the express condition that a 12-metre-wide internal road in the layout be kept open for use by the general public and neighbouring landowners. When the developer resisted, PMRDA (the planning authority) directed that the road be opened to the public. The developer challenged this in the Bombay High Court, which, while the writ petition was still pending, passed an interim order allowing the road to be used by the public only between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., with gates/barriers permitted at other times. PMRDA appealed to the Supreme Court against this interim arrangement.
The Supreme Court held that the High Court's interim order effectively granted final relief to the developer, restricting what had been an unconditional public-access condition, without finally deciding the writ petition on merits. It held this exceeded the High Court's jurisdiction under Article 226, reiterating the settled principle that an interim order should not, in substance, grant the final relief sought in the main proceeding. The Court quashed the High Court's interim order of 4 October 2019 and allowed the appeal, while directing that the underlying writ petition be decided independently, on its own merits, without being influenced by the Supreme Court's observations.
Conditions attached to statutory planning/building permissions (such as keeping roads open for public use) are binding and cannot be diluted by a court through an interim order; courts must decide such disputes finally on merits rather than fashioning what is effectively a final compromise at the interim stage.
