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.
A West Bengal government-owned corporation leased three vacant plots of industrial land to a private company for setting up a factory, but the company never began construction even after being given extra time. The corporation terminated the lease under a special state law meant for speedy eviction from "government premises," but the Calcutta High Court quashed the eviction, holding the corporation was not a "government undertaking" and the land was not "government premises" under that law. The corporation appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the corporation, being wholly state-owned and controlled, did qualify as a "government undertaking." However, it held that the special eviction law only applies to "premises" as defined in the Act, which covers buildings, huts, or rooms (and land merely appurtenant to them), not to bare, vacant land with no structure on it. Since the three plots had no construction on them when the eviction proceedings began, they did not qualify as "government premises," so the corporation could not use this special fast-track law to evict the tenant. The appeal was dismissed, but the Court clarified the corporation remains free to seek eviction under the separate West Bengal Public Land (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1962.
A government body cannot always rely on special fast-track eviction laws meant for "premises" (buildings/structures) to remove a tenant from bare, undeveloped land: the right law must match the right facts, and the remedy still exists, just under a different statute.
