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.
The appellant, a dealer in maize starch since 1975, claimed that maize starch was exempt from sales tax under Tamil Nadu's "Exemption Entry No. 8," which exempted "products of millets" including maize. The State's Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, however, issued a circular in October 1998 clarifying that maize starch was a taxable "starch of any kind" under a separate taxation entry, not an exempt millet product, and sought to recover tax retrospectively from 1996. The appellant's writ petition and review application challenging this circular were both dismissed by the Madras High Court, leading to these appeals to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that maize (the raw grain) is exempt as a "product of millet," but maize starch, being a processed product obtained by mechanically treating maize, is not the same thing and falls instead under the specific taxing entry for "sago and starch of any kind." The Court reasoned that where a statute has both a general exemption and a more specific taxing provision covering the same goods, the specific provision prevails. It also held that the Commissioner's clarificatory circular was validly retrospective, since its purpose was merely to make explicit a tax liability that was always implicit in the statute, not to create a new liability. The appeals were accordingly dismissed, though the Court arrived at this conclusion for reasons different from those given by the High Court.
When a general exemption clause and a specific taxing entry both appear to cover the same product, courts will apply the more specific provision, meaning a business cannot assume a broad exemption automatically extends to a processed or derivative form of the exempted raw material; tax circulars clarifying an ambiguous existing provision can validly apply retrospectively.
