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.
Sterlite Industries (Vedanta) operated a copper smelter at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu under environmental clearances and consents granted by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) from the mid-1990s onward. After local residents complained in 2013 of severe health symptoms linked to plant emissions, and following a series of closure/re-opening orders by the TNPCB and appeals to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the plant was eventually ordered shut on 09.04.2018. The NGT, in judgments dated 08.08.2013 and 15.12.2018, had entertained and decided appeals against TNPCB's orders, and the TNPCB and others appealed those NGT rulings to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the NGT lacked jurisdiction to have entertained the appeals in the first place, because the National Green Tribunal Act only confers appellate jurisdiction over specific categories of orders, and an order passed under Section 18 of the Water Act (among others challenged here) is not one for which an appeal lies to the NGT. Since an appellate right is purely a creature of statute, the NGT could not expand its own jurisdiction by invoking a "doctrine of necessity" merely because no properly constituted alternative appellate authority existed. The Court accordingly set aside the NGT's judgments on the ground of maintainability alone (without going into the merits of the plant's closure), restored the position before the NGT's intervention, and left it open to Sterlite to challenge the underlying orders by filing a writ petition in the Madras High Court, which could consider interim relief and was urged to hear the matter expeditiously given the plant's prolonged shutdown.
A tribunal's appellate powers exist only to the extent a statute actually grants them, even an expert body like the NGT cannot hear an appeal just because it seems like the most logical forum; parties must identify the correct appellate route (here, a writ petition to the High Court) before approaching a tribunal.
