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 appellant worked in the Central Government's Telecom Department for 10 years, then worked for about 3 years in a Kerala state-owned public sector undertaking (a non-pensionable job), before joining the State's Technical Education Department where he served until retirement. On retiring, he sought to count his earlier Central Government service towards his pension, but this required the roughly three-year gap to be "condoned." The Kerala Administrative Tribunal ruled in his favour, but the Kerala High Court reversed that, wrongly assuming he was trying to also count his non-pensionable PSU service.
The Supreme Court clarified that the appellant was not seeking to count his non-pensionable PSU years at all: he only wanted that gap excluded/condoned so his two genuinely pensionable spells of service (Central and State) could be joined together. Relying on a 2014 Kerala Government Order that specifically permitted condoning such "sandwiched" non-qualifying service, and finding that his claim was still pending when that Government Order came into force, the Court held the High Court had misunderstood the issue and wrongly denied him the benefit. It restored the Tribunal's order granting him the pension benefit.
Government employees whose careers include a gap in a non-pensionable job between two pensionable postings should check whether the relevant government rules allow that gap to be "condoned" so their total pensionable service can be properly combined for pension purposes.
