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.
M/s. Cera Boards and Doors, a plywood/block-board manufacturer in Kannur, Kerala, was investigated by central excise intelligence officials, who found evidence (seized documents, notebooks, and statements) suggesting the company had been under-declaring the sale value of its goods to pay less excise duty. The tax department issued show-cause notices demanding over Rs. 4.29 crore in differential duty plus penalties. This case was the "lead case" for seven batches of similar appeals filed by different Commissioners of Central Excise across the country, all raising the same core question of how to value goods when there is evidence of under-invoicing.
The Supreme Court examined how "value" of excisable goods should be determined under Section 4 of the Central Excise Act, both before and after a 2000 amendment that introduced the concept of "transaction value." The Court held that once there is proof that a dealer paid more than the invoice price for even some transactions, that higher value can be applied to all of that dealer's purchases during the relevant period, but not automatically extended to other dealers who were not shown to have paid extra. The Court laid down a detailed set of principles (listed as findings I-IV and A-F) to guide tax authorities on which valuation method and rules apply depending on the facts, and sent all the appeals back to the original adjudicating authorities to redo the valuation using these principles, given how old the matters were.
When tax authorities suspect under-invoicing, evidence of extra payments by one customer cannot automatically be used to tax all of a company's other sales: each dealer's transactions must be assessed on their own evidence, a safeguard against sweeping assumptions in tax demands.
