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.
In 1997, an Industrial Tribunal held that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had unlawfully retrenched 21 casual workmen and ordered their reinstatement, regularization in Class-IV posts, and partial back wages. FCI challenged this award in the High Court but, while its writ petition was pending, voluntarily reinstated the workmen and even went further, "absorbing" them into regular service via its own office orders: an action taken under only a conditional interim stay that merely required paying last-drawn wages. Eighteen years later, after the workmen had served in regular positions all that time, a Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court modified the earlier order and struck down the regularization portion of the award, reasoning that the industrial dispute reference itself did not include a term of "regularization."
The Supreme Court held that FCI could not be permitted to "approbate and reprobate": that is, it could not voluntarily and unilaterally absorb the workmen into permanent service (far beyond what the interim court order required), let them serve in that capacity and gain seniority for 18 years, and then turn around and challenge the same benefit it had freely granted. Since FCI had never sought urgent disposal of its own writ petition during those 18 years and had accepted the practical benefits of its choice, allowing it to reverse course at this late stage would cause serious and unjustified hardship to the workmen. The Court restored the original 1997 Tribunal award in full, including regularization and back wages, and dismissed FCI's cross-appeal.
A party cannot accept the benefits of its own voluntary compliance with an order for years and then challenge that very compliance later. The law does not allow one to "have it both ways," a principle known as the doctrine of approbate and reprobate.
