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.
In a 2015 recruitment exam for Gram Panchayat Adhikari in Uttar Pradesh, one question asked who the sitting Panchayati Raj Minister was; the intended correct answer, Shri Kailash Yadav, had died 12 days before the exam was held, making that answer technically wrong on the exam date. The Commission decided to give a mark to everyone who selected Kailash Yadav or left the question blank, but not to those who chose any other (wrong) option. The respondent, who answered with the wrong name and missed the cutoff by just one mark, challenged this before the High Court, which directed the Commission to either delete the question or award him the mark too.
The Supreme Court held that the Commission's chosen approach was a reasonable and defensible way of handling an unforeseen, unusual situation (the minister's sudden death just before the exam), and was not "palpably perverse" or arbitrary: the standard needed for a court to interfere with an examining body's academic/administrative decision. It distinguished between candidates who answered with the once-correct option or left it blank versus those, like the respondent, who picked an answer that was wrong at every point in time, finding the Commission's differential treatment logical. The Court also noted that deleting the question at this late stage would unsettle an already-completed selection and appointments, and set aside the High Court's judgment, restoring the Commission's original decision.
Courts generally will not second-guess the academic or administrative judgment calls of an examination body unless that judgment is clearly irrational or arbitrary, especially where undoing the decision would disrupt a selection process that has already moved forward and resulted in appointments.
