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.
For over a decade, India's National Law Universities had admitted students through a single, jointly-run Common Law Admission Test (CLAT). In 2020, the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru broke away and announced its own separate entrance exam, the "National Law Aptitude Test" (NLAT), just days before the scheduled CLAT exam. A prospective student's father and a former Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU challenged this notification as unlawful and unfair to students who had already prepared for the common CLAT exam.
The Supreme Court held that NLSIU's unilateral decision to hold a separate exam, breaking away from the consortium-agreed CLAT process, was not in accordance with law and quashed the NLAT notification and the related press release. The Court noted serious complaints about technical glitches and alleged malpractice during the NLAT exam that had already been conducted, but declined to rule on those fact-specific allegations, leaving them to be examined through the University's own criminal complaints. It directed that the previously scheduled CLAT-2020 exam proceed as planned with proper COVID-19 safety protocols, that NLSIU admit students based on CLAT results, and that the consortium's administrative structure (including restoring NLSIU's displaced administrative role) be normalized so the common process could run smoothly going forward.
A single institution cannot unilaterally abandon a jointly-agreed, multi-institution admission process at the last minute to the detriment of thousands of students who relied on it: courts will step in to protect the settled expectations of an entire cohort of exam-takers against such disruptive, individual departures.
