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 road-maintenance contractor had agreed with the State of Haryana to maintain a stretch of road at a fixed rate per kilometre per month, based on an estimated traffic volume at the time of contracting. When traffic was diverted from a nearby road onto the contractor's stretch, significantly increasing wear and maintenance costs, the contractor claimed additional compensation through arbitration. The Arbitrator awarded the contractor extra compensation at an enhanced rate, which the State challenged, and which was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The Supreme Court held that the Arbitrator was right to award the contractor extra compensation for the genuine additional burden caused by the diverted traffic, rejecting the State's argument that this amounted to impermissibly rewriting the contract. However, the Court partly allowed the State's appeal, finding that the Arbitrator erred by extending the enhanced compensation all the way to the end of the contract period, even though the additional traffic diversion itself had ceased earlier (around January 2008). To that limited extent, the Court held the award was perverse, and confirmed the enhanced compensation only up to the point when the extra traffic actually stopped, while quashing it for the period thereafter.
An arbitral award can be partially set aside by courts where it awards compensation for a loss beyond the period the loss-causing circumstance actually existed: compensation must be tied to the actual duration of the hardship, not extended indefinitely for the remainder of a contract.
