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.
This case is part of a larger dispute arising from a US patent settlement between Ranbaxy and Teva over the generic drug Atorvastatin (Lipitor), under which Ranbaxy India paid roughly Rs. 1,851 crore to Teva Israel (Teva USA's parent) in 2012-2014. The Income Tax Department believed the money really belonged to Teva USA and, alleging the payment structure was designed to dodge tax in India, the US and Israel, issued a reassessment notice for Assessment Year 2014-15 to Teva USA under Section 148, using an extended 10-year limitation period on the theory that Teva Israel's bank deposit was an "asset" of Teva USA.
The Court held that a bank deposit sitting in a different company's (Teva Israel's) account cannot be treated as an "asset" of Teva USA to justify the extended reassessment period, and that this theory was in any case sprung on the taxpayer only after its reply, without a fair chance to respond. Even applying the ordinary three-year limitation, the notice and preceding order were issued well beyond the time actually available to the tax department after accounting for the Supreme Court's Ashish Agarwal ruling and pandemic-related extensions. The notice and consequential order were quashed as both time-barred and issued without jurisdiction.
Tax authorities cannot borrow limitation-extending provisions meant for cases where a taxpayer's "own asset" was found, by simply relabelling money in someone else's bank account as belonging to a different taxpayer, nor can they ambush a taxpayer with a brand-new legal theory only after its explanation has already been filed.
