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.
The Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) advertised posts for High School Assistant (Physical Science), requiring a degree with Physics/Chemistry as a main subject. The appellant held a B.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry (not plain Chemistry) along with a B.Ed., cleared the written exam, but was then asked to prove her Polymer Chemistry degree was equivalent to a Chemistry degree. Although the University of Calicut had certified the two as equivalent for employment and higher studies, the KPSC excluded her from the final merit list, relying on an earlier Kerala High Court ruling that the KPSC itself has no authority to decide "equivalence" of qualifications unless the specific recruitment rules allow for it. Her challenge before the Kerala Administrative Tribunal and later the Kerala High Court both failed.
The Supreme Court agreed with the lower forums, holding that equivalence of an academic qualification is a technical academic matter that cannot be assumed or implied by a recruiting body like the KPSC: any such equivalence must come from a specific order or resolution of the competent academic authority, duly published, and applicable to the recruitment rules in question. It held that the university's own certificate, issued for general employment and higher-study purposes, did not satisfy this requirement in the specific context of these recruitment rules, and reaffirmed that the appellant was correctly found not qualified for the post as advertised. The appeal was accordingly dismissed with no order as to costs.
When a government job requires a specific degree subject, a general "equivalence" certificate from a university is not automatically enough: the recruiting rules themselves must recognise that equivalence through a specific, duly published academic decision, so candidates with non-standard degree combinations should verify this before relying on the exam process alone.
