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.
The respondent, a Deputy Commissioner at the Bangalore Development Authority, was accused of corruption (along with an advocate acting as alleged middleman) for allegedly demanding a bribe to process a land "denotification" request, recorded in part using a spy camera handed to the complainant by the Lokayukta police before the FIR was registered. A discharge application filed by the respondent was dismissed by the trial court, but the Karnataka High Court later quashed the entire prosecution, reasoning that the spy-camera recording was inadmissible without a Section 65B Evidence Act certificate and that there was no other convincing evidence. The State appealed to the Supreme Court against this quashing.
The Supreme Court held that a Section 65B certificate for electronic evidence is only required at the stage the evidence is actually produced at trial, not at the discharge/charge-sheet stage, so the High Court erred in quashing proceedings on that basis. It also held that handing a spy camera to the complainant before the FIR was lodged was merely a permissible "preliminary inquiry" (recognized for corruption cases under the Lalita Kumari precedent) and did not amount to an improper pre-FIR investigation. Because the prosecution also had other independent material referenced in the charge-sheet, and because a discharge application requires only a prima facie case (not a mini-trial), the Court set aside the High Court's order and restored the trial court's order dismissing the discharge application, allowing the prosecution to proceed.
At the discharge stage of a criminal case, courts must assume the prosecution's material is true and ask only whether an offence is prima facie made out: they cannot conduct a "mini trial" or reject evidence (like a video recording) merely because a technical evidentiary certificate hasn't yet been produced, since that requirement only bites when the evidence is formally led at trial.
