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.
A company (Rathi Ispat Ltd.) mortgaged its land, building, and machinery to Punjab National Bank (as lead bank) to secure loans. Separately, the Central Excise Department had earlier initiated proceedings against the company for evading excise duty, and in 2007, years after the bank's charge was created, the Excise Commissioner ordered confiscation of the same properties under a Rule (173Q(2)) that had, in fact, already been omitted from the law in 2000. When the bank tried to take possession of the mortgaged properties under the SARFAESI Act after the company defaulted, the Excise Department blocked it, citing the confiscation. The Allahabad High Court dismissed the bank's challenge.
The Supreme Court held that the 2007 confiscation orders were void from the outset because the rule authorising confiscation (Rule 173Q(2)) had already been removed from the statute book years earlier: the department could not confiscate property under a provision that no longer existed. Separately, the Court held that even if the confiscation had been valid, a secured creditor's rights under the SARFAESI Act (2002) override the Central Excise Department's claim, since the SARFAESI Act has an overriding effect over other laws and there was no "first charge" provision favouring the excise department at the relevant time. The appeal was allowed and the confiscation orders quashed.
A government authority cannot exercise a statutory power (like confiscation) once the underlying provision has been repealed or omitted, and secured lenders' rights over mortgaged property generally take priority over unsecured government dues unless a specific law says otherwise.
