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 landlord let out a small shop to a tenant for a hair-cutting business under a 1993 rent agreement signed only by the tenant, which set monthly rent, made the tenant responsible for house tax, and allowed eviction for non-payment of rent or on one month's notice by the landlord. When the tenant fell into arrears of rent and house tax, the landlord sought eviction; the Rent Controller ordered eviction, but the Appellate Court reversed this, reasoning the agreement was an unregistered lease exceeding one year and therefore could not be relied upon, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld that reversal.
The Supreme Court held that the rent agreement was a monthly tenancy, not a lease "for a term exceeding one year," because it specified no fixed duration and simply allowed termination on default of monthly rent or landlord's one month's notice: a clause promising a 10% annual rent increase was merely a contingent future promise and did not itself convert the tenancy into a yearly or multi-year lease. Relying on established precedent on how to construe leases of uncertain duration, the Court held the document was not compulsorily registrable under Section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, so the Appellate Court was wrong to have discarded it on that technical ground. The Court also found the Appellate Court had wrongly set aside the eviction decree without ever recording a finding that the tenant was not actually in default of rent or house tax. The appeal was allowed and the Rent Controller's eviction order was restored.
A simple rent agreement without a fixed term, payable monthly and terminable by notice or default, is ordinarily a monthly tenancy that does not need compulsory registration: a clause about future rent increases does not by itself turn it into a long-term lease requiring registration.
