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.
A beer and liquor manufacturer purchased empty glass bottles from unregistered dealers to package its products and claimed it should not have to pay "purchase tax" on these purchases, relying on government clarification circulars issued in 1989 and 2000 that it said exempted such transactions. The tax department disagreed and sought to levy purchase tax across several assessment years spanning 1986 to 1997. The Madras High Court had given mixed rulings across the years, partly favouring the company based on those circulars.
The Supreme Court held that the purchase of empty bottles from unregistered dealers is indeed subject to purchase tax under Section 7-A of the Tamil Nadu Act, since the bottles become part of the finished, taxable product when used for packaging. Crucially, it held that government circulars or clarifications cannot override the correct legal interpretation of a tax statute laid down by courts: if a circular conflicts with the law as interpreted by the courts, it simply has no legal effect, regardless of what tax officials believed at the time. The Court did, however, uphold a separate, narrower point in the company's favour: cash discounts it offered to its sole buyer did not count as part of its taxable "turnover," since the law expressly excludes discounts from turnover calculations.
Departmental circulars and administrative clarifications that contradict the law as settled by the courts carry no legal weight: taxpayers cannot rely on a favourable circular to escape a tax liability that courts have found to genuinely exist under the statute.
