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.
Trisha Singh (wife) had filed a petition to transfer her husband Anurag Kumar's matrimonial case (filed under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act for restitution of conjugal rights) from a Family Court in Varanasi to Pune. While the transfer petition was pending, the Supreme Court referred the matter to mediation, and the couple signed a settlement on 26 February 2024 agreeing to a mutual-consent divorce, with the husband paying a total alimony of Rs. 1.15 crore in instalments (having already paid Rs. 50 lakh). Acting on the settlement, the husband withdrew his matrimonial case, but the wife then stopped instructing her counsel and tried to resile from the settlement without justification after having already accepted Rs. 50 lakh and benefited from the case's withdrawal.
The Supreme Court held that the wife's conduct (accepting part payment and the benefit of the husband's withdrawal of his case, then reneging on the settlement) was recalcitrant and unjustified, relying on its earlier ruling in Ruchi Agarwal vs. Amit Kumar Agrawal that a party cannot go back on a compromise after having taken its benefits. Finding the marriage had broken down irretrievably with no chance of reconciliation, the Court used its special power under Article 142 of the Constitution to grant a decree of divorce directly, dissolving the marriage. It directed the husband to continue paying the remaining alimony instalments as per the settlement schedule, with no order as to costs.
A party who accepts money and other benefits under a court-mediated settlement cannot later unilaterally back out of it without valid grounds. The Supreme Court can invoke its special constitutional power (Article 142) to grant a divorce directly when a marriage has irretrievably broken down, even over one spouse's later reluctance, provided the agreed financial terms are honoured.
