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 Delhi landlord was billed by the electricity distribution company (BSES) for alleged power theft detected at a tenanted property. The billing dispute was amicably settled through a Permanent Lok Adalat, with the landlord paying a reduced, full-and-final settlement amount in instalments as recorded in a formal Lok Adalat award. Despite this settlement and full payment, BSES still lodged a criminal FIR against the landlord under the Electricity Act for the same alleged theft, and the Delhi High Court refused to quash it.
The Supreme Court held that once a dispute is finally and amicably settled through a Lok Adalat award with no reservation of any right to pursue criminal proceedings, there is no surviving cause of action to justify a later FIR on the same facts: the proper remedy for an aggrieved party would have been to challenge the award itself, not to separately prosecute. Since the award here contained no condition preserving BSES's right to file a criminal case, filing the FIR afterwards was held unjust, illegal, and not legally sustainable. The Court allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court's order, and quashed the FIR.
Once a monetary/civil dispute is finally settled through a Lok Adalat award without any reserved right to prosecute, the other side cannot later revive the same grievance as a criminal case: a full-and-final settlement is exactly that, unless the settlement itself says otherwise.
