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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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 contractor was engaged in 1993 to build a masonry dam for the Madhya Pradesh government, sourcing sand from a specified quarry. When that quarry ran out of sand, the department permitted the contractor to switch to a more distant quarry in 2002, but stated this was subject to a contract clause barring extra payment for the changed "lead" (transport distance) unless authorized in writing by the Superintending Engineer. The contractor later claimed roughly Rs. 5.5 crore in cost escalation for the extra transport distance; the State refused, and the dispute went to arbitration where the contractor's claim was allowed and upheld through a revision in the High Court, prompting the State's appeal here.
The Supreme Court held that the contract's escalation clause (3.11(A)) permitted extra payment where circumstances were beyond the contractor's control AND the Superintending Engineer had granted a written order, both conditions were met here, since an inspection report confirmed the original quarry was depleted and the Superintending Engineer's letter granted permission for the alternate site. The Court held that the Executive Engineer's later attempt to impose a "no extra payment" condition exceeded his authority once the Superintending Engineer's conditions were satisfied, since contractual rights cannot be curtailed by an officer's discretion outside the contract's terms. The Court also rejected the State's res judicata argument, since an earlier, separate arbitration award concerned a different, rejected request for an alternate quarry, not this one. The appeal was dismissed and the arbitral award in the contractor's favour was upheld.
In government contracts, once the specific conditions of a clause allowing extra payment (such as written authorization from the designated officer) are satisfied, no subordinate official can unilaterally impose additional restrictions to defeat that contractual right: the terms of the contract, not administrative discretion, govern the outcome.
