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.
Transfer Petition (Criminal) · 2026 INSC 1060
Where a marriage has irretrievably broken down and the parties reach a genuine, voluntary settlement, including on alimony, the Supreme Court can use its Article 142 powers to grant a mutual-consent divorce and close out all related litigation in one stroke, without requiring the usual statutory waiting period.
Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026 INSC 1061
In long-running, complex litigation involving apportioned government liabilities across states, the Supreme Court can use a mechanism like a retired-judge committee plus periodic compliance affidavits to bring genuine finality, including firm timelines, transparency obligations, and interest for delayed payment, rather than leaving matters open-ended.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1062
In an "as is where is" liquidation auction, a bidder who voluntarily accepts the auction terms cannot later resile from a forfeiture clause by citing regulatory caps or after-the-fact excuses for non-payment: courts will enforce the auction notice's own conditions.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8338-DB
Once someone is released from custody because the police failed to properly communicate the grounds of arrest, the police cannot simply re-arrest them by adding new charges: a specific, court-supervised procedure with senior-officer accountability must be followed, or the re-arrest itself becomes illegal.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8308
In economic-offence cases, bail can still be granted where the method used to quantify the alleged financial evasion is not adequately justified, and where the apprehension of re-offending is speculative rather than evidence-based.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8323
A parole claim must be backed by a genuine, verifiable application to the competent jail authority: courts will scrutinise irregularities like an incomplete address, an unexplained thumb mark, or reliance on a mere friend's affidavit rather than close family.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8337
Courts can grant short, strictly time-bound interim bail purely on humanitarian/compassionate grounds (such as caring for a seriously ill family member), even while a case remains pending trial and an earlier bail plea has failed.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8312
Courts will not repeatedly re-examine a bail plea already rejected on merits unless the applicant can point to a genuine change in circumstances since the earlier order.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8334
Under the no-fault compensation scheme for railway accidents, a valid ticket-holder injured while attempting to board a train, even carelessly, is generally entitled to compensation unless the railway can show a deliberate, conscious exposure to danger, not mere negligence.
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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.
Punjab National Bank filed a recovery application against Topline Shoes Ltd. before the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Mumbai, and the company filed a counter-claim alleging that money it had deposited with the Bank in 1994 had been illegally withheld and extracted from it under undue influence. The DRT dismissed both the Bank's claim and the company's counter-claim, holding the counter-claim was time-barred; the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal and later the Bombay High Court upheld this. The company appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the more generous three-year limitation period under Article 22 of the Limitation Act (running from the date of its 1999 notice) should apply, rather than Article 113's residual period.
The Supreme Court held that limitation is a mixed question of law and fact and cannot be decided while ignoring the underlying facts. It noted the DRT's finding that the company had, as a "conscious decision" by its own Board, chosen in 1994 to pay the disputed amount without contesting it (to protect its business relationships and future loans), and had only issued a demand notice five years later, in 1999. Since the claim arose from the 1994 payment and not from the 1999 notice, the Court agreed with the DRT, DRAT and High Court that the residual Article 113 (not Article 22) period applied, meaning the counter-claim was correctly held time-barred, and dismissed the appeal.
The limitation clock for recovering money you claim was wrongly taken from you generally starts running from when the cause of action actually arose (here, the original payment), not from whenever you later choose to send a demand notice, delaying action does not restart the limitation period.
