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 Second Appeal in a Gujarat property dispute had originally been filed on behalf of all legal heirs of a deceased plaintiff by one Vitthalbhai Maganbhai Parmar, who held a power of attorney only from one heir, Lalitbhai Jesangbhai Parmar, and not from the others. After the appeal was dismissed for defects, Vitthalbhai got it restored, the other heirs were transposed as defendants (leaving Lalitbhai as sole appellant), and Lalitbhai, after cancelling Vitthalbhai's power of attorney through a public notice, engaged advocate Yogesh Navinchandra Ravani to withdraw the appeal, which the Gujarat High Court allowed in 2017. Vitthalbhai then filed a review application (using the now-cancelled power of attorney) to restore the appeal, and the High Court not only restored it but also passed adverse strictures against the advocate, Ravani, and imposed costs on Lalitbhai, prompting both Ravani and Lalitbhai to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court found that once Lalitbhai's power of attorney to Vitthalbhai was validly cancelled by public notice in June 2017, Vitthalbhai had no legal authority to file the October 2018 restoration application, making it wholly untenable. It further held that once the other heirs were transposed as defendants, Lalitbhai, as sole appellant and dominus litis (master of the litigation), was fully entitled to withdraw the appeal, since none of the interested parties (including the other heirs) actually wished to pursue it. The High Court's adverse remarks against advocate Ravani, who was merely acting on his client's lawful instructions, were held to be "totally unwarranted and uncalled for." The Supreme Court quashed the High Court's impugned judgment restoring the appeal and expunged the strictures, allowing both appeals with no costs.
A power of attorney ceases to have legal effect once validly cancelled, and a litigant who is the sole remaining party in a case (the dominus litis) has the right to withdraw it: an advocate who properly acts on such client instructions should not be personally blamed or reprimanded by a court for doing so.
