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.
Several banks earned tax-free income (interest on tax-free bonds and dividends) alongside their regular taxable banking business, without keeping separate bank accounts for the funds used to make these tax-free investments. The tax department disallowed a proportionate share of the banks' interest expenditure under Section 14A of the Income Tax Act, reasoning that some borrowed/interest-bearing funds must have financed the tax-free investments. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ruled for the banks, but the High Court reversed in favour of the Revenue.
The Supreme Court held that where an assessee has "mixed funds" (partly interest-free, partly interest-bearing) and its own interest-free funds are larger than the tax-free investments made, the law presumes the investments came from the interest-free funds, so no proportionate disallowance under Section 14A is warranted. The Court found no statutory obligation on an assessee to maintain separate accounts for different types of funds, rejecting the Revenue's argument that the absence of such accounts justified disallowance. Relying on its own and various High Courts' precedents (including Maxopp Investment and Godrej & Boyce), the Court ruled in favour of the banks and allowed their appeals.
A taxpayer with sufficient interest-free funds of its own does not need to segregate its bank accounts to protect tax-free investment income from disallowance: the law presumes such investments were made from the interest-free funds when they are adequate to cover them.
