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 construction company executed works contracts for the Government of Orissa and had sales tax deducted from its running bills, which the government reimbursed for a few years under a 1986 circular. Later, the government reversed its position through a 2001 circular, declaring that sales tax on a "completed item of work" (an immovable property) was not reimbursable, and demanded recovery of past reimbursements. The contractor successfully challenged this reversal in the High Court, and the State appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the contract's Clause 45.2 clearly entitled the contractor to reimbursement of sales tax actually levied and paid on the "taxable turnover" of the works contract (not on the entire turnover), and this operated independently of a separate clause requiring the contractor to have already built ordinary material taxes into its bid price. The Court found the government's 2001 circular reinterpreting the clause to deny reimbursement was an unjustified "vacillating" reversal of its earlier 1986 position and could not override the plain contractual terms or the settled constitutional position on taxing works contracts (following Builders' Association and Gannon Dunkerley). The appeal was dismissed, upholding the contractor's right to reimbursement.
When a government contract contains a specific tax-reimbursement clause, the government cannot unilaterally reinterpret or reverse it years later through an internal circular to avoid honoring contractual commitments: the actual wording of the contract, not shifting departmental views, governs the obligation.
