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.
Before Bhushan Steel Limited went through insolvency resolution, an operational creditor, Varsha, had filed a civil recovery suit against it, and another creditor, Masyc, had initiated arbitrations. When Tata Steel's resolution plan was approved by the NCLT, these creditors' disputed claims were admitted only at a notional value of Re. 1, pending adjudication. After the plan's approval, Varsha and Masyc tried to continue their suit and arbitrations to recover the full amounts, and the High Court allowed the suit to proceed; Tata Steel appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court allowed Tata Steel's appeal, holding that under the IBC's "clean slate" doctrine, once a resolution plan is approved, all claims not crystallised and quantified by that date stand extinguished, and a successful resolution applicant cannot be saddled with fresh, undetermined liabilities years later. Reading the resolution plan's clauses together, the Court found no genuine carve-out preserving these sub-judice claims beyond the token Rs. 1 and the limited "Operational Creditors Settlement Amount" pool; the pending civil suit and arbitration were accordingly dismissed. The Court added an "afterword" urging the Legislature to reconsider how the IBC treats small operational creditors, including MSMEs, who are left at the bottom of the repayment order.
Creditors of a company undergoing insolvency resolution must get their claims verified and quantified before the resolution plan is approved. Once approved, unresolved or notionally-valued claims are generally wiped out under the "clean slate" principle, regardless of how the underlying litigation later turns out.
