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.
In 2009, the Rajasthan High Court invited applications for 13 posts of Translator from Judicial Assistants/Junior Judicial Assistants under the Rajasthan High Court Staff Service Rules, 2002. After the selection process was already underway, questions arose over whether the recruiting authority could introduce a minimum qualifying/cut-off mark requirement that was not expressly part of the advertised rules, relying on the earlier decision in K. Manjusree v. State of A.P. (2008) which held that the "rules of the game" cannot be changed after the process starts. A three-Judge Bench doubted the correctness of Manjusree for not considering an earlier ruling, Subash Chander Marwaha (1974), and referred the matter to a larger Constitution Bench for an authoritative pronouncement.
The Constitution Bench clarified that Manjusree and Subash Chander Marwaha deal with different questions and are not in conflict: Subash Chander Marwaha concerns a candidate's right to actually be appointed from a select list, while Manjusree concerns a candidate's right to be placed on the select list in the first place, and Manjusree remains good law. The Court held that recruiting bodies may, within the framework of existing rules, devise procedures to conclude a recruitment process, but only if that procedure is transparent, non-discriminatory, non-arbitrary and rationally connected to the object of recruitment. Where statutory rules exist, they bind the recruiting body on both eligibility and procedure; only where rules are silent can administrative instructions fill the gap, but this cannot be done arbitrarily after the process has begun to change the outcome. The Court also reaffirmed that being placed in a select list does not create an indefeasible right to appointment, though the State cannot arbitrarily refuse to appoint someone within the zone of consideration if vacancies genuinely exist.
Once a public recruitment process has started, the government or the recruiting body cannot arbitrarily change the "rules of the game" (such as introducing new cut-off criteria) unless the existing rules permit it and the change is transparent and non-arbitrary; and merely making it to a select list does not guarantee a job if the employer has a bona fide reason not to fill the vacancy.
