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.
The petitioners, T.R. Vijayaraman (proprietor of M/s Kumaran Silks) and B. Kangarajan (in a connected petition, partner of M/s Sri Ganesh Godown), were among 14 accused, including four Indian Bank officials, in a CBI case arising from a 2002-2004 fraud at the bank's Srirangam Branch, Trichy. Bank officers made unauthorised debit and credit entries in clearing accounts without any negotiable instrument actually being submitted, effectively giving the petitioners interest-free overdraft advances running into over Rs. 1.1 crore across ten borrowers. The Trial Court convicted both petitioners under Sections 120-B and 420 IPC, sentencing each to 5 years' rigorous imprisonment plus a fine, and the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) upheld the convictions.
The Supreme Court dismissed both Special Leave Petitions, declining to grant leave to appeal. It held that the fraudulent entries, crediting large sums to the petitioners' accounts without any instrument submitted for clearing, could not have occurred without connivance between the bank officers and the private businessmen, and that repaying the money only after being caught during an internal inspection did not erase the fraud or show it was a genuine loan transaction. The Court rejected the argument that the High Court had failed to individually re-examine evidence from the five separate trials, since the High Court had properly confirmed the Trial Court's factual findings. It noted a connected petition by another accused on the same FIR had already been dismissed earlier in 2024. The petitioners were directed to surrender before the Trial Court within two weeks.
Receiving unauthorised interest-free credit through manipulated bank entries, even without submitting any loan instrument, can amount to criminal cheating and conspiracy; repaying the amount only after being caught does not undo criminal liability, and the Supreme Court will not disturb concurrent findings of guilt by the Trial Court and High Court without a compelling legal error.
