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.
In 1975, the appellants (sellers) agreed to sell a property to the respondents (buyers) for Rs. 6,000, with Rs. 1,000 paid as earnest money. Under the agreement, the sellers had 8 days to obtain government permission to sell, and the buyers then had 15 days after being informed of that permission to complete the sale deed. The sellers never applied for permission, and more than five years later, in 1981, the buyers sued for specific performance of the contract. The case went through the Trial Court, First Appellate Court, High Court, and even a prior round before the Supreme Court (which had remanded it), with the High Court finally ruling in the buyers' favour in 2018, prompting this appeal by the sellers' legal heirs.
The Supreme Court held that once the sellers failed to apply for permission within the first 8 days as agreed, the responsibility shifted to the buyers to act promptly and assert their rights. They could not simply wait indefinitely. Because the buyers waited over five-and-a-half years without ever formally demanding performance or showing they were "ready and willing" to pay the balance and complete the sale (a requirement under the law for such suits), their 1981 suit was filed well beyond the 3-year limitation period prescribed by the Limitation Act, 1963. The Court restored the earlier First Appellate Court ruling dismissing the suit, while ordering the sellers to refund the original Rs. 1,000 earnest money as an inflation-adjusted lump sum of Rs. 1,50,000.
In contracts for sale of property, a buyer cannot wait indefinitely to sue for enforcement after the seller defaults: the buyer must act with reasonable diligence and clearly show, including in their own court pleadings, that they were ready and willing to perform their part, or the claim can be barred by limitation even if the seller was originally at fault.
