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.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1066
Courts will not infer a concluded oral contract for the sale of immovable property just because the other side's witnesses seemed evasive: the party seeking specific performance must independently and affirmatively prove every essential term was genuinely agreed.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1065
Even in serious, high-value corruption cases, prolonged pre-trial detention cannot be used as a substitute for punishment when the trial is unlikely to conclude soon and the evidence is already secured: bail remains the touchstone principle under Article 21's personal liberty protection.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1067
Preventive detention cannot be used as a backdoor way to keep someone in custody once the ordinary criminal process, including bail, has already run its course on the same facts; the detaining authority must show a genuine, independent risk of future harm, not just recycle the criminal case file.
Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1068
In land acquisition disputes, courts will readily restore a uniform, fair market rate across similarly-situated parcels, but ancillary compensation heads (like moveable equipment such as tubewells) still require the claimant to prove their case with admissible evidence, not private reports whose authors were never examined in court.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8447
If you are injured while genuinely trying to board or exit a train, you are very likely covered under railway "untoward incident" compensation law, even if you technically hadn't fully boarded yet: courts read this protection broadly in favour of passengers, and contemporaneous official records (station logs, police diary entries) carry more weight than a statement taken from you much later.
Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8404
Courts will not entertain vague, unsubstantiated allegations of judicial bias, and a request to combine cases becomes moot once the other related proceedings have already concluded: genuine grievances about trial delay or procedure must be backed by specific, demonstrable facts, not just repeated litigation.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8403
Anticipatory bail can be granted even in matrimonial cases involving serious sexual-offence allegations where there is unexplained delay in reporting, no evidence substantiating the need for custodial interrogation, and the investigating agency's own conduct (e.g., undocumented "verbal" notices) fails to justify arrest, though this is assessed only for bail purposes, not as a finding on guilt.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8407
In family property disputes, signing a Relinquishment Deed acknowledging receipt of consideration, and then waiting years without challenging it or pursuing your claimed share, will make it very difficult to later prove you were never actually paid; courts expect contemporaneous action (a legal notice, a suit) and corroborating evidence, not delayed assertions alone.
Regular First Appeal · 2026:DHC:8401
A tenant who claims to have paid a large sum toward an informal "mortgage" or side arrangement must be able to prove it with solid evidence (receipts, corroborating witnesses): bare assertions, especially when contradicted by one's own family members under cross-examination, will not defeat a landlord's claim for rent and possession.
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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 27-year-old married woman with two young children, the younger being about a year old, discovered she was around 24 weeks pregnant only after visiting a gynaecologist post-delivery of her second child, having missed the earlier signs because breastfeeding-related lactational amenorrhea had stopped her periods. Citing postpartum depression and financial strain (her husband being the sole earner supporting multiple dependents), she approached the Supreme Court directly under Article 32 seeking permission for a medical termination since hospitals had refused given the pregnancy had crossed 20 weeks. A two-judge Bench initially allowed the termination on 9 October 2023 after an AIIMS Medical Board review, but the situation became complicated when an AIIMS doctor emailed the Additional Solicitor General warning that the foetus (now about 26 weeks) was viable and asked the Court to clarify whether the foetal heartbeat should be deliberately stopped before the procedure.
Following this development, the same two-judge Bench heard the Union's recall application but delivered a split verdict, so the matter went to a three-judge Bench headed by the Chief Justice. The Court first held that although a formal review petition (not a recall application) was the technically correct route, it was justified in invoking Article 142 to do complete justice given the case's urgency, the medical-viability stakes, and that the critical new information came to light only after the original order through no fault of the parties. On the merits, since the pregnancy had crossed the 24-week statutory limit, termination could only be permitted if the foetus had a substantial abnormality (none was found on a fresh AIIMS report) or if termination was immediately necessary to save the mother's life (neither medical report supported this). The Court declined to direct doctors to stop the viable foetus's heartbeat, noting the petitioner herself did not want such a direction, and ultimately denied permission for termination, directing that AIIMS conduct the delivery at government expense, with adoption left as an option entirely at the parents' discretion.
Once a pregnancy crosses the 24-week statutory limit under the MTP Act, termination can only proceed if there is a substantial foetal abnormality certified by a Medical Board or an immediate threat to the mother's life. The Supreme Court's wide Article 142 powers to do "complete justice" do not extend to directing doctors to stop the heartbeat of a viable foetus that does not meet these statutory conditions.
