As an ordinary person willing to stay updated with current affairs, a headline of legal news is enough to understand the decisions of Courts. However, when you are a Legal Researcher, an Advocate, a student of Law, or any Legal Professional, you need the judgment itself to understand what the Court said. While some may have paid tools, there are many who need free options. Sometimes, they are stuck on how to access the Court judgments, particularly the Supreme Court ones. So here, we bring a step-by-step guide on how to find Supreme Court judgments online on the Apex Court website itself. Anyone, regardless of whether they are an advocate, or an ordinary person, can access the SC judgments here, with some basic information.
How to find Judgment of Supreme Court?
Given below are the major modes through which one can find the Supreme Court judgments on the Supreme Court website. For that, they first need to visit at sci.gov.in. A page like this will appear on the screen.
Here, click on the judgments button, and you will be taken to a page where there are different modes to access judgments passed by the Apex Court. Specific steps to these modes have been simplified below:
Supreme Court Judgment by Diary Number
At the time of filing, a diary number is allotted to Supreme Court matters. If you know the diary number, then finding SC judgments is easier.
All you need to do here is enter the diary number, select the diary year, answer the captcha question and you are done. No two Supreme Court cases are allotted the same diary number. Thus, this one is a more accurate option for finding Apex Court judgments.
SC Judgment by Case Number
How to find Supreme Court judgments when you are one of the parties or their advocates? In that case, you must be having the documentation where the case number is available.
Thus, click here and keep the details handy. Select the case type and enter the case number in a specific column. Select the diary year and solve the captcha answer.
Finding SC Judgments by Judge’s name
How to find Supreme Court judgments when you remember the names of Judges on the Bench in a specific matter? This page allows you to search the Apex Court judgments by Judge’s name.
All you need to do is select the name of the Supreme Court Judge from the drop down menu. It may be noted that in case of Division Bench or Larger Bench, names of one of the judges will bring the results. You also need to select the dates within which the judgment was delivered by the Court, and captcha answer.
Supreme Court Judgment by Date
If you know the specific date, or time period within which a specific judgment was delivered, you may check the same here. All you need to do is select the start date and end date of the calendar – the period within which such judgment is known to be delivered. There is one thing – the range of period to be selected cannot go beyond a month. In other words, the difference between two dates here cannot be more than 30 days.
How to find Supreme Court Judgments by Text?
Click Here and you will be taken to the page where you can enter free text to find a judgment. It can be name of the party, a sentence in the judgment, or even specific numbers, bet it case number, petition number, etc.
How to find Supreme Court Judgment by Party Name
The new Apex Court website seems to have removed the feature of finding Supreme Court Judgments by party names. However, click here and you will be taken to a page where you can search case status by party names.
You need to select whether you know the name of the petitioner, respondent, or all, if you doubt whether the party name you remember was petitioner or respondent. Now, enter the name of the party in the specified column. It is important to be careful with the spelling here. The following space requires entering the year – in which the case was instituted. For example, if the case was instituted in 2020 and decided by the Court in 2022, you need to enter 2020 in the space when you are searching for case status in the column specified. Select disposed as against pending since you are searching for the judgment. After answering the captcha question, the page will load the case details and its status. If you found one, click on view, and further details will show. Here, in the drop down menus below, you will find the Judgments/Orders button. This is how you get to access the Supreme Court judgment by party name.
