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.
A UAE-based money remittance company ran RBI-approved liaison offices in India that helped execute transfers requested by NRI customers in the UAE, mainly by downloading remittance data and printing cheques/drafts to be couriered to Indian beneficiaries. The Authority for Advance Rulings held that this created a taxable "business connection" and "permanent establishment" in India, a view the Delhi High Court reversed, holding the liaison office's activities were merely of a "preparatory or auxiliary" nature under the India-UAE DTAA, so no tax was due on commissions earned entirely in the UAE. The Income Tax Department appealed.
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court, holding that the India-UAE DTAA's definition of "permanent establishment" expressly excludes a fixed place of business used solely for activities of a "preparatory or auxiliary character," and that the liaison offices here, restricted by RBI's own conditions from earning any fee, entering contracts, or doing any independent business in India, fell squarely within that exclusion. Since the contracts with NRI remitters were concluded and the remittance fees earned entirely in the UAE, the Indian liaison offices could not be treated as a permanent establishment, and therefore no profits could be taxed in India under the DTAA, regardless of what the general provisions of the Income Tax Act might otherwise suggest.
Where India has signed a tax treaty with another country, the treaty's terms override the general domestic tax law; a foreign company's India office that performs only support or auxiliary functions, not the substantive foreign business itself, generally cannot be taxed in India as a "permanent establishment."
