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.
UPSC had selected candidates for 85 Public Prosecutor posts in the CBI in 2015, with a reserve/waiting list valid until 16 January 2017. Respondent Krishna Mukund was the next-in-line OBC candidate on that reserve list. When 6 OBC-category selected candidates failed to join their posts before the list expired (their names were reported to UPSC by the Department of Personnel & Training, including one "A. Mohammad Ali" flagged as early as February 2016), UPSC sent replacement dossiers for only 5 of the 6 vacancies, leaving the respondent's name unsent. The Central Administrative Tribunal ruled in the respondent's favour, and UPSC challenged that ruling before the High Court.
The High Court dismissed UPSC's challenge, finding from the correspondence itself that the Department of Personnel & Training had flagged all 6 unfilled OBC vacancies, including the one arising from candidate A. Mohammad Ali's failure to join, well before the panel's 16 January 2017 expiry date. UPSC's argument that Mohammad Ali's vacancy was only formally notified in June 2017 (after expiry) was rejected, since the substance of that vacancy had already been communicated in February 2016. Because UPSC should have sent 6 replacement names rather than 5, and the respondent would have been the sixth candidate in line, the Court upheld the Tribunal's direction that his case be considered for appointment, but clarified this relief was limited to this one candidate only, not a wider reopening of the list.
A recruiting authority cannot deny a wait-listed candidate their turn by citing the panel's expiry if the vacancy itself was reported and up for filling while the panel was still valid: what matters is when the vacancy arose and was notified, not when all the paperwork was completed.
