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.
Transfer Petition (Criminal) · 2026 INSC 1060
Where a marriage has irretrievably broken down and the parties reach a genuine, voluntary settlement, including on alimony, the Supreme Court can use its Article 142 powers to grant a mutual-consent divorce and close out all related litigation in one stroke, without requiring the usual statutory waiting period.
Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 1061
In long-running, complex litigation involving apportioned government liabilities across states, the Supreme Court can use a mechanism like a retired-judge committee plus periodic compliance affidavits to bring genuine finality, including firm timelines, transparency obligations, and interest for delayed payment, rather than leaving matters open-ended.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1062
In an "as is where is" liquidation auction, a bidder who voluntarily accepts the auction terms cannot later resile from a forfeiture clause by citing regulatory caps or after-the-fact excuses for non-payment: courts will enforce the auction notice's own conditions.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8338-DB
Once someone is released from custody because the police failed to properly communicate the grounds of arrest, the police cannot simply re-arrest them by adding new charges: a specific, court-supervised procedure with senior-officer accountability must be followed, or the re-arrest itself becomes illegal.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8308
In economic-offence cases, bail can still be granted where the method used to quantify the alleged financial evasion is not adequately justified, and where the apprehension of re-offending is speculative rather than evidence-based.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8323
A parole claim must be backed by a genuine, verifiable application to the competent jail authority: courts will scrutinise irregularities like an incomplete address, an unexplained thumb mark, or reliance on a mere friend's affidavit rather than close family.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8337
Courts can grant short, strictly time-bound interim bail purely on humanitarian/compassionate grounds (such as caring for a seriously ill family member), even while a case remains pending trial and an earlier bail plea has failed.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8312
Courts will not repeatedly re-examine a bail plea already rejected on merits unless the applicant can point to a genuine change in circumstances since the earlier order.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8334
Under the no-fault compensation scheme for railway accidents, a valid ticket-holder injured while attempting to board a train, even carelessly, is generally entitled to compensation unless the railway can show a deliberate, conscious exposure to danger, not mere negligence.
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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.
Suresh Paswan, a construction worker, fell from the roof of the first floor at his employer's construction site and suffered grievous injuries resulting in 60% permanent disability, certified by a government hospital doctor in 2009. The Commissioner, Employees' Compensation awarded him Rs. 3,74,364/- based on this disability certificate. The employer appealed to the Delhi High Court, which got a Medical Board to re-examine the worker nearly nine years after the accident; that Board found no permanent disability, and the High Court set aside the compensation award on that basis.
The Supreme Court held that the belated Medical Board examination, conducted about nine years after the accident, could not reliably displace the contemporaneous 2009 disability certificate documenting the injury and its effect on the worker's earning capacity at the relevant time. The Court noted the employer never sought a Medical Board examination before the Commissioner at the earliest opportunity, and that it would be unjust to award the worker nothing given he clearly suffered a genuine injury affecting his earning capacity. Since the worker had already withdrawn Rs. 3,76,236/- (50% of the deposited amount) pursuant to an earlier High Court order, the Court held that this sum, with interest, should be treated as full and final settlement of his compensation claim, and the High Court's judgment quashing the award was itself set aside in part.
A medical re-assessment conducted years after a workplace accident is not automatically more reliable than a certificate issued near the time of injury, and courts will be wary of denying injured workers all compensation based on delayed, employer-initiated medical re-examinations.
