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.
ACIL Limited, an auto-components manufacturer, went through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) after a bank's application. Ramkrishna Forgings Limited (RFL) submitted a resolution plan that was progressively improved through negotiation and was ultimately approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) with an overwhelming 88.56% vote. However, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) kept approval of the plan in abeyance and directed a fresh revaluation of ACIL's assets by the Official Liquidator, and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld this order. RFL appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that an adjudicating authority's power to scrutinise a resolution plan under Sections 30(2) and 31 of the Code is limited and does not extend to second-guessing the commercial wisdom of the CoC. If the NCLT finds a genuine shortcoming, its remedy is to send the plan back to the CoC for resubmission, not to unilaterally order a revaluation and stall the process indefinitely. The Court found the NCLT's order directing revaluation was cryptic and gave no reasoned basis for departing from the ordinary process, which by itself made it legally unsustainable, since courts and tribunals have a duty to record cogent reasons for their orders. It set aside both the NCLT and NCLAT orders and directed the NCLT to pass a fresh, reasoned order on the pending resolution plan approval application within three weeks.
Insolvency tribunals must give clear, reasoned orders and cannot override a creditors' committee's commercial decision on a resolution plan except on the narrow legal grounds the law actually provides: unexplained delay-causing orders in insolvency proceedings will not survive appellate scrutiny.
