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 group of Assistant Engineers in the Rural Engineering Departments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were appointed on an ad hoc basis in 1985 and later regularised in 1989. A long-running dispute arose over whether their years of ad hoc service should count towards their seniority, or whether seniority should run only from the date of regularisation. An earlier Supreme Court decision (Narendra Kumar Tripathi, 2015) had held that ad hoc service should count, leading authorities to revise seniority lists and downgrade some originally-senior employees, who then challenged the revised lists before the High Court.
The Supreme Court held that the ad hoc appointees in this case were appointed in 1985 without any selection process involving the Public Service Commission or a properly constituted Selection Committee, and were regularised only in 1989 after going through a Selection Committee process under the applicable Rules. Because their substantive appointment only validly came into existence upon regularisation in 1989, their seniority could be counted only from that date, not from their initial ad hoc appointment. The Court distinguished this situation from the Tripathi precedent and restored the original seniority list dated 14.12.2001, quashing the revised list and the High Court judgments that had relied on Tripathi to uphold it.
Service seniority generally runs from the date of a valid, rule-compliant appointment; purely ad hoc service rendered without following the prescribed selection procedure will not automatically be counted towards seniority merely because a later regularisation occurred, unless the specific facts and rules say otherwise.
