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 commercial complex built on a plot allotted to M/s GPS Properties and developed by M/s Today Homes and Infrastructure was assessed for property tax by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). Instead of pursuing the statutory appeal process under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the respondents filed a civil suit in the Delhi High Court directly challenging the assessment order and attachment warrants. A Single Judge dismissed the suit as not maintainable, but the Division Bench disagreed and sent the matter back for fresh consideration, prompting SDMC to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court examined whether the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act impliedly barred civil courts from hearing tax assessment disputes, applying the well-established test from Dhulabhai v. State of Madhya Pradesh. It held that since the Act created the tax liability itself (not a pre-existing common-law liability), provided its own appellate remedy through the Municipal Taxation Tribunal, and gave that Tribunal's orders statutory finality under Section 171, the civil courts' jurisdiction was impliedly excluded. The Court rejected the High Court's view that the requirement to deposit the disputed tax amount before appealing made the statutory remedy "onerous" and therefore inadequate, noting a prior ruling that an imperfect alternate remedy is not grounds to allow a civil suit instead. Since the respondents' plaint contained no allegation that the assessment process violated the statute or fundamental principles of judicial procedure, only that the assessment order itself was erroneous, there was no basis for the civil suit to proceed, and the Division Bench should not have remanded the matter.
Where a law creates a tax liability and also provides its own complete appeal mechanism with a finality clause, a taxpayer generally cannot bypass that process and go straight to a civil court merely because they find the appeal process (such as a pre-deposit requirement) inconvenient: they must use the statutory remedy unless they can show the authorities acted outside their jurisdiction or ignored basic principles of fair procedure.
