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.
Customs officials seized 144 silver slabs and two silver ingots from premises linked to the assessee, Prakash Chand Lunia, who was in the silver business. The silver was confiscated as smuggled goods and a personal penalty was imposed on him. The tax department treated the value of this silver as the assessee's unexplained investment/income under Section 69A of the Income Tax Act. The assessee argued that, alternatively, the value of the confiscated silver should be allowed as a deductible "business loss," relying on an earlier Supreme Court decision (Piara Singh). The High Court of Rajasthan accepted the assessee's argument on this point and allowed the loss as a business deduction, and the Revenue (tax department) appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court allowed the Revenue's appeal, holding that the loss from confiscation of smuggled silver could not be claimed as a business deduction. Justice M.R. Shah reasoned that the assessee's actual, legitimate business was dealing in silver, not smuggling, so smuggling silver was an unlawful side venture, and Piara Singh (which concerned someone whose entire business was smuggling) did not apply; instead, the older ruling in Haji Aziz & Abdul Shakoor Bros. v. CIT applied, which denies deduction for losses arising from breach of law. In a separate concurring opinion, Justice M.M. Sundresh went further and held, as a broader principle, that Explanation 1 to Section 37(1) of the Income Tax Act bars deduction of any expenditure/loss incurred for a purpose that is an offence or prohibited by law, and that confiscation/penalty proceedings are "in rem," so no assessee, whether their whole business is illegal or only partly so, can deduct such a loss; he held that the earlier decisions in Piara Singh and Dr. T.A. Quereshi do not lay down correct law on this point.
Losses suffered because goods were confiscated for smuggling or another legal offence cannot be written off as a "business loss" to reduce one's tax bill. The law does not allow taxpayers to get a tax benefit from the fallout of illegal activity.
