Case Search and case pages, complete guide

Case Search finds Supreme Court of India matters. A case page gathers what is known about one matter: its details, parties, orders, hearings, defects and next listing. Both are research aids built on public records. They do not replace the Court's own documents, so open the official order for anything you will file or cite.

On the web, Case Search is in the left menu and works without an account. In the mobile app, it is Search in the side menu. A short version of this topic is in search cases and orders.

Searching on the web

Type in the box on the Case Search page and press Search. The box says "Enter keywords, party names or case numbers / citations...".

What a typed search matches

• Words. Your words are matched against the case title, the petitioner and respondent names, the case number and the case category. Several words must all appear, though not necessarily side by side. A title containing your exact phrase ranks first. Quotation marks, "or" and a minus sign before a word work as they do in a web search engine.
• Number and year. Typing something like 1234/2025 looks for a diary number or a case number with that year, matched exactly. If nothing matches that way, it falls back to a words search.
• Order and judgment text. The same words are also searched inside orders and judgments. These matches appear in a separate section, "Found in order and judgment text" (see below).

Use filters for precision

Choose Filters to narrow the list. The panel offers:

A badge on the Filters button counts the filters you have applied, and each shows as a chip you can remove. The address in the browser updates as you search, so a filtered search can be reloaded or shared as a link.

Pages for a judge, an advocate, an Act or a section can open Case Search already scoped to that choice. The scope appears as a badge ("Bench:", "Counsel:", "Act:", "Section:") with an x to remove it. When a search is scoped to a judge, the disposal filter is dropped, because the platform does not present outcome figures for a named judge or bench.

Tip: Start with a short party name and add filters. Names are spelt in several ways in the records.

Reading the results

Each result shows a case card. The line above the list says how many results came back and how long the search took. With no search text it says how many cases the database holds. Without a typed query, results are newest decision first. With words, the best text match comes first, then the newest.

The web page shows a first page of results. If your case is not there, add a filter or more words.

Note: A words search lists cases whose details have already been fetched from the Supreme Court. If you use the Diary Number or Case Number filter, the list is not limited to those, so a very recent matter can still be found by its number.

Order and judgment text

Below the case results, Found in order and judgment text lists orders and judgments that contain your words. Each hit shows the case title, whether it is an Order or a Judgment, its date and the diary number, with the matched words highlighted. Words are matched by stem, so close word forms can match. Hits are newest first, and Show more results loads further hits. The search needs between 2 and 200 characters. Click a hit to open its case page.

Looking up by CNR

Case Search itself does not take a CNR. To look up a case by CNR, use Add a Case in the left menu. It offers three ways: Case Type (type, number and year), Diary Number (number and year) or CNR. If the case is already in the platform, it is linked at once. If not, it is fetched live from the Supreme Court and you are kept posted. See diary number vs case number if you are unsure which to use.

Searching in the mobile app

Open Search from the side menu. The box says "Name, party or case number". Type at least 2 characters and wait a moment. Results appear as you type, up to 20 at a time.

Below the box, four segments let you choose what to look up: Cases, Advocates, Judges and Parties. A case card shows the title, the neutral citation or diary number, and, if the matter has been disposed, the disposal and decision date. Cards show facts only, never a score or ranking. Your Recent searches are listed when the box is empty. Searching needs a connection. The app does not search order text. To add a case by diary number, case number or CNR, use the add case form, which accepts years from 1950 to the current year.

Opening a case on the web

Click a result to open its case page at /judgment/.... The page has a header, a set of tabs and a column of cards on the right.

The header

The title appears with a badge showing Pending or Disposed (with the nature of disposal), the neutral citation (Neutral:), the printed report citation (SCR:) and the judgment date, when they exist. See neutral citations. You can Track the case (see tracking a case). Once it is tracked, Share with client appears. Brief-in-Hand (Hearing Sheet) opens a one-page sheet for the hearing, with the bench, impugned orders, interim prayers and recent directions, which you can print or copy. When the case is being called in a courtroom right now, a "Live in hearing now" banner appears with a link to the display board (see cause list and live courts).

The tabs

Case History also has collapsible sections on the side when records exist: Earlier Court Details, Registry Defects, Tagged Matters, Court Fees Transactions, Notices Issued, Mention Memos and Drop Notes.

The cards on the right

• Next listing. The cause-list entry (date, court, item and bench) when the list has been published. Otherwise the Supreme Court's tentative date, labelled as not a confirmed listing. A disposed case shows when it was disposed.
• Expected next listing. Shown only for a pending case with no known date: a date range with a reason and a link to how it is estimated. It is an estimate, never a promise.
• Defect cure deadline. For open Registry defects, an estimated deadline, days left and how long matters of the same type usually take to cure the defect (a historical median, not a deadline).
• Before you file and Draft a document. A check of the record against common Registry objections and template-based drafts for signed-in users (see the AI Assistant guide).
• Data last refreshed, for tracked cases, with Refresh now. After a request you may need to wait before refreshing again.
• Your notes on this case. Notes you keep on the matter.
• Matters like this one. Court-wide statistics for similar matters, such as how long they took and how disposed matters ended. It is labelled as historical statistics, not a prediction for this matter.
• Bench Coram, Parties, Advocates & Counsel, Acts & Sections Cited, Similar Matters. Advocates are shown with a factual role such as AOR, never ranked.

Citations

Under the tabs, Citations has two lists: Cites (what this judgment refers to) and Cited by, each with a count and Show more after 20 entries. If none are recorded it says so.

The case page in the app

The app's case page opens with a header and five tabs: Summary, Hearings, Orders, Defects and Parties. Summary shows diary number, case number, case type, status, stage, citation and decision date, plus the next listing and recent activity. Orders lists the Court's own PDFs: Open PDF opens the Court's copy and Share link shares it. If a PDF is not yet available, the row says so. Defects shows estimated cure deadlines with the same historical median note. Stop tracking this case is under the header. Case lists are kept on your phone, so a saved case opens offline with a banner showing when its data was current. Pull down to refresh.

Sharing a case status with a client

On the web, track the case, then choose Share with client.

1. Pick how long the link lasts: 7, 30 or 90 days.
2. Choose Create link.
3. Copy it or send it by WhatsApp. The full link is shown only once.
4. To stop access, choose Revoke. The list shows when each link was created, when it expires and how many times it was opened.

Anyone with the link sees a read-only page headed "SCI case status": the case title, diary number, status, next date, last order, the time the information was current and the expiry date. No other data is shared. The page notes that it comes from public records and is not legal advice. An expired or revoked link tells the visitor to ask their advocate for a new one.

Where the data comes from and how fresh it is

• Case details, orders, hearings and defects come from the Supreme Court of India's public records. Cause lists and listings come from the Court's published lists. The methodology page explains how figures are built.
• Records arrive after the Court publishes them. A very recent order may not be there yet.
• If a case is not yet in the platform, a fetch from the Supreme Court is queued. The page says it usually takes a few minutes and updates by itself. If the Court has not registered that diary number yet, the page says there is nothing to fetch.
• Dates marked "estimated" or "tentative" are not confirmations.

Common questions

I cannot find a matter I know exists. Try a shorter party name, check the diary number and year, or use Add a Case. A very new matter may take time to appear.

Which number should I search with? A diary number works from filing. After registration, the case number is used in orders. See diary number vs case number.

Why is there no original PDF? The case may not have a final judgment. The page then shows the latest order on file if there is one.

Are these results ranked? Case results are a list ordered by text match and date. People and organization lists are factual tallies, not rankings. See the methodology.

Where is the official order? In the original PDF on the case page, or see where to find Supreme Court orders and judgments.