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.
Two brothers jointly bought a property in Howrah in 1959, each owning an equal, undivided share. After both died, one brother's son (Brij Mohan) sold the entire property to a tenant, S.K. Golam Lalchand, claiming he had become sole owner through an unproven gift from his uncle and a family settlement with his sisters. The other original co-owner's son, Nandu Lal Shaw, sued for a declaration that the sale was invalid to the extent of his family's share and for an injunction against dispossession. The trial court dismissed his suit, but the first appellate court and then the High Court (in second appeal) ruled in his favour.
The Supreme Court found that neither the alleged gift (by which one brother supposedly transferred his share to the other) nor the family settlement among Brij Mohan and his sisters was ever proved by any document or evidence, all three lower courts had already disbelieved this story. Since the property legally remained jointly owned by both original branches, Brij Mohan alone had no authority to sell the whole property; he could only transfer his own undivided share under Section 44 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. The Court held the buyer, S.K. Golam Lalchand, could still pursue Brij Mohan separately for a partition or for damages, but could not claim ownership of the entire property. The appeal was dismissed, upholding the injunction against the buyer, with no order as to costs.
A co-owner cannot validly sell an entire jointly held property without the consent of the other co-owners or a formal partition: a buyer in such a case only acquires the seller's own share, and must seek partition or compensation for the rest.
