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 respondent, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) category employee of the Income Tax Department, appeared for a departmental examination under rules requiring 45% marks for general category candidates but only 40% for SC/ST candidates. He cleared every subject above 45% except "Other Taxes," where he scored 43%: already above the 40% ST threshold, so he was declared passed in his own category. He later sought two additional "grace marks" in that subject so his score would cross the 45% general-category threshold, which would let him be treated as a general category candidate for promotion purposes. The Central Administrative Tribunal rejected this, but the Rajasthan High Court reversed the Tribunal and directed the grace marks be given.
The Supreme Court held that the CBDT's grace marks policy existed solely to help marginally failing candidates cross the passing threshold in their own category, not to let an already-passed candidate accumulate extra marks to reclassify into a different (general) category for promotional advantage. Since the respondent had already passed in his ST category, there was no scope for granting him further grace marks. The Court found the High Court had wrongly relied on Rajesh Kumar Daria v. Rajasthan Public Service Commission, which was not applicable to these facts, and restored the Tribunal's order dismissing the respondent's application.
Grace marks or other examination concessions are ordinarily to be interpreted strictly for the specific purpose they were designed for (here, helping marginally failing candidates pass) and cannot be stretched by candidates who have already passed to gain an unrelated benefit like category reclassification for promotion.
