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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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.
Solaris Chem Tech ran a caustic soda factory supplied with water by the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board under agreements fixing tariffs. In 2014 the Board issued notices demanding over Rs 8.22 crore in back-dated tariff revisions. The company challenged these notices in a writ petition, but the High Court (Single Judge and then Division Bench) refused to examine the challenge on merits, holding that Clause 11 of the water-supply agreement required the dispute to first go to the Board's own Chief Engineer for a "final and binding" decision, effectively treating it like an arbitration clause.
The Supreme Court held that Clause 11 was not a valid arbitration agreement under Section 7 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, because it did not set up an impartial tribunal: the Chief Engineer was simply an employee of the very Board that was a party to the dispute, so he could not adjudicate impartially between the Board and the consumer. Relying on its earlier rulings (including Jaipur Zila Dugdh Utpadak Sahkari Sangh and Jagdish Chander), the Court explained that a valid arbitration clause needs a written agreement to refer disputes to an impartial private tribunal that both sides agree will decide the matter fairly and bindingly: a "referee" clause naming one party's own official does not qualify. Since the High Court had refused to decide the actual merits only because of this flawed clause, the Supreme Court set aside both High Court judgments and restored the writ petition to the Single Judge for a fresh decision on merits, without expressing any opinion on who should ultimately win.
A contract clause that sends "disputes" to an employee or official of one of the contracting parties for a "final and binding" decision is not a genuine arbitration clause, and courts should not use it to shut the door on judicial review: genuine arbitration requires a neutral decision-maker.
