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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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.
SAIL had contracted with the Canada-incorporated shipping company Norvic to transport 1.6 million metric tons of limestone from the UAE to India over multiple voyages. Disputes arose over how long each ship was allowed to sit before being charged "demurrage" (a penalty for delay) at various Indian ports, especially given delays from a cyclone and, later, the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. An arbitral tribunal awarded Norvic freight, demurrage, and interest across seven vessels, and SAIL challenged that award in court.
The Court dismissed SAIL's challenge across all seven vessels. It held this was an "international commercial arbitration" (since Norvic is a foreign company) seated in Delhi, meaning the more limited grounds for challenging domestic awards (like "patent illegality") don't apply: the award can only be set aside for narrower reasons, such as being genuinely bereft of reasoning or contrary to fundamental policy. On the facts, the Court found the tribunal had properly considered whether notices of a ship's arrival readiness were valid, whether equipment breakdowns should pause the delay-clock, and crucially, whether Covid-19 restrictions actually prevented cargo unloading, noting that government orders at the time expressly classified port cargo operations as "essential services" that were required to continue, undercutting SAIL's claim that the pandemic excused its delays. It also upheld the interest rate awarded (LIBOR + 3%, capped at 12% per annum) as clear and not open-ended.
In cross-border commercial disputes, once an arbitration is classified as "international commercial arbitration," Indian courts apply a much narrower standard when reviewing the award: they will not re-examine the tribunal's factual findings or substitute their own view, even on matters like whether Covid-19 lockdown orders genuinely prevented contract performance, so long as the tribunal's reasoning is intelligible and grounded in the evidence before it.
