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 police department "Orderly" (Follower) went on sanctioned leave in 1991 to tend to his ailing mother, then failed to report back to duty or respond to repeated official summons to undergo a medical check, despite being warned of consequences. He was departmentally proceeded against ex parte and discharged from service in 1993. Years later he challenged the discharge, claiming he had been mentally incapacitated, relying on a psychiatric certificate obtained in 1998, nearly seven years after he went absent.
The Orissa Administrative Tribunal had rejected his challenge, doubting the genuineness of the belated medical certificate, but the Orissa High Court later reduced his punishment from discharge to compulsory retirement, relying on a precedent involving a much shorter (37-day) unauthorized absence. The Supreme Court held that the High Court wrongly equated the two cases: the employee here remained absent without any contemporaneous medical proof for about seven years and had actively evaded the CDMO's medical examination ordered to verify his claim, unlike the comparator case. The Court found the certificate, obtained years later without any record of ongoing treatment, unconvincing, and held there was no procedural unfairness in the original disciplinary inquiry. It therefore set aside the High Court's order and restored the discharge, with no order as to costs.
Belated, unsupported medical certificates produced years after the fact will not automatically excuse a long unauthorized absence from government duty, especially where the employee avoided an official medical verification offered to him at the time. Precedents involving materially different facts (such as a much shorter absence) cannot be mechanically applied to justify leniency.
