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.
The respondent registered in 1982 for a plot/flat under an Economically Weaker Sections housing scheme of the U.P. Housing and Development Board, paying a modest registration fee. Under the Board's own Registration Booklet and its 1979 Rules, mere registration never guaranteed an allotment: a registered applicant had to separately submit written consent to participate whenever a specific scheme's draw of lots was advertised, which the respondent never did. After staying silent for over a decade, the respondent filed a consumer complaint in 1993, and the dispute wound through consumer fora for over 20 years, eventually reaching the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which in 2018 directed the Board to allot the respondent a specific flat for a fixed price of Rs 2,50,000.
The Supreme Court held that the Board's Rules and Registration Booklet made clear that registration alone created no entitlement to allotment, and that the respondent, who never submitted the required consent letters for any draw of lots and remained inactive for years, including being absent for all eight hearing dates before the State Commission, had no vested right to a flat. The Court found the NCDRC's direction to allot a specific flat at a specific price to be an arbitrary exercise unsupported by any contractual basis, since a public authority like the Board cannot be compelled to enter into a contract it never agreed to on terms it never offered. The appeal was allowed and the NCDRC's order was set aside.
Registering for a government housing/allotment scheme does not by itself create a legal right to be allotted a house or plot: applicants must actively comply with the scheme's own procedural requirements (such as submitting consent for a draw of lots when advertised), and consumer fora cannot invent allotment terms a public body never agreed to.
