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 appellants were constructing a large high-rise residential building in Kasavanahalli Village, Bengaluru, after obtaining Environmental Clearance from Karnataka's State Environment Impact Assessment Authority in January 2018. A third party objected that the project encroached on the buffer zone of Kaikondarahalli Lake and on primary/secondary stormwater drains (Rajakaluve), making the site ecologically fragile, and challenged the clearance before the National Green Tribunal. In February 2020, the NGT set aside the Environmental Clearance, and the developers appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that at the time the NGT passed its order, a Joint Committee tasked with physically inspecting the site had not yet completed its final round of inspection, meaning the NGT ruled without the benefit of the Committee's complete factual findings. Since a related report on the same project existed in a separate, connected proceeding, the Court held it would be inappropriate for itself to examine that report's contents directly and make factual findings in the first instance: that task belongs to the NGT as the first fact-finding appellate body. The Court set aside the NGT's order and remitted the matter back to the NGT to reconsider the appeal in light of the Joint Committee's report, directing the NGT to decide within six weeks of the parties' first appearance and expressly keeping all contentions open and the clearance's validity undetermined in the meantime. It made clear the Environmental Clearance would not stand automatically revived, and no construction could proceed until the NGT's fresh decision.
When an environmental tribunal rules before a fact-finding inspection is actually complete, higher courts will often send the matter back for a fresh, fully-informed decision rather than deciding disputed environmental facts themselves: procedural completeness in evidence-gathering matters as much as the final outcome.
