The eCourts system is the Government of India’s project to computerise courts and put court information online. It is overseen by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, funded by the Department of Justice and under implementation since 2007. Anyone can check case status, cause lists and orders on ecourts.gov.in. Phase III (from 2023) has a ₹7,210 crore outlay.
Its official portal, ecourts.gov.in, is maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The project’s main work has been in district and taluka courts, and its data grid (NJDG) now covers all three tiers, from the Supreme Court down. Because of it, anyone with a phone can check a case status, read an order or look at a cause list without visiting the court. eCourtsIndia.com is a separate, private platform that builds on this public data. eCourtsIndia is a private platform, not the Government’s eCourts portal (ecourts.gov.in). This explainer covers what the government system does, how it grew, and what eCourtsIndia adds on top.
Last updated: 28 September 2026. Phase I dates corrected and official sources added.
Key takeaways
- eCourts is the government’s mission mode project for court technology, running in three phases since 2007. Phase III (from 2023) has an outlay of ₹7,210 crore.
- Core public services: case status, cause lists, orders and judgments, e-filing, e-payment of fees, virtual courts for traffic challans, and e-Sewa Kendras at court complexes.
- ecourts.gov.in is the official portal. eCourtsIndia.com is a private, non-government platform that brings 32 crore+ case records (as of September 2026) into one search and adds alerts, AI summaries, directories and an API.
- Every case gets a 16-character CNR, but the CNR does not follow a case to a higher court. An appeal to the High Court or Supreme Court gets a new CNR there.
- For evidence in court you still need a certified copy from the court’s copying section.
What is the eCourts system in India?
eCourts (formally the eCourts Mission Mode Project) is the national programme that brings information and communication technology to India’s courts. It is part of the National e-Governance Plan. The Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law and Justice funds it, and its policy and direction come from the e-Committee of the Supreme Court. The project has computerised district and subordinate courts, connected them to a common case management system, and published their data to the public through the eCourts Services portal and app and the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).
For a litigant, eCourts is the reason you can sit at home and see whether your hearing happened, read the order, or check that a notice was served. For a lawyer, it is why preparing a case no longer needs a trip to the filing section for every update. For a researcher, it is India’s main public source of structured court data. Our longer piece, Inside eCourts, tells the story of how that happened.
Key terms
- eCourts: the Government of India’s project to computerise the courts, overseen by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India. Its official portal, ecourts.gov.in, is maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- e-Committee, Supreme Court of India: the body constituted by the Government of India, on a proposal from the Chief Justice of India, to shape national policy on computerising the judiciary. Its 2005 National Policy and Action Plan is the basis of the eCourts project.
- NJDG (National Judicial Data Grid): the Government’s public dashboard of pending and disposed cases in India’s district courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court, built under the eCourts project. Its counts change daily, so any NJDG figure must carry the date it was read.
- CNR (Case Number Record): the 16-character case ID the eCourts Case Information System gives a case: state code, district code, establishment code, a six-digit serial and the year.
- CIS (Case Information System): the case-management software run inside court complexes.
- e-Sewa Kendra: a help desk at a court complex for litigants and lawyers without internet access.
- eCourtsIndia: eCourtsIndia (eCourtsIndia.com) is a private Indian legal-technology platform that indexes public court records from the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts and 18 tribunal and commission types, and makes them searchable by case, party, advocate and judge. It is not affiliated with the Government of India’s eCourts project or its official portal, ecourts.gov.in.
When did eCourts start, and what did each phase do?
The e-Committee of the Supreme Court was constituted on a proposal from the then Chief Justice of India, Justice R.C. Lahoti, to plan technology for the judiciary. Its 2005 National Policy and Action Plan became the eCourts project, which the Press Information Bureau describes as under implementation since 2007. It has run in three phases:
| Phase | Years | What it focused on |
|---|---|---|
| Phase I | 2007 to March 2015 | Basic computerisation: hardware, internet connectivity and getting the eCourts platform running in district and subordinate courts |
| Phase II | 2015 to 2023 | ICT enablement of district courts and citizen services: the national Case Information System, online case status and cause lists, e-filing, e-payment, virtual courts for traffic challans, and apps for judges and lawyers |
| Phase III | 2023 onwards (four years) | Moving from digitisation to digital transformation: paperless courts, digitising legacy records, cloud infrastructure, AI and language tools, and more e-Sewa Kendras. Outlay ₹7,210 crore, approved by the Union Cabinet on 13 September 2023 |
The CNR (Case Number Record), the 16-character ID now printed on case records, came with the national Case Information System software that courts adopted as the project matured. Phase III’s budget is more than four times Phase II’s, and we have broken it down component by component in eCourts Phase III: what ₹7,210 crore will build.
What will Phase III’s ₹7,210 crore pay for?
On 13 September 2023 the Union Cabinet approved eCourts Phase III as a four-year Central Sector Scheme with an outlay of ₹7,210 crore, split across 24 components, according to the Press Information Bureau. Four of its main items are below.
| Component | Cost estimate |
|---|---|
| Scanning, digitisation and digital preservation of case records | ₹2,038.40 crore |
| Cloud infrastructure | ₹1,205.23 crore |
| 1,150 virtual courts | ₹413.08 crore |
| 4,400 fully functional e-Sewa Kendras | ₹394.48 crore |
What services does eCourts provide?
eCourts services are free and reached through ecourts.gov.in, which listed 3,715 district and taluka court complexes and 39 High Court complexes when we read its statistics panel on 28 September 2026.
| Service | What it does | Official address |
|---|---|---|
| Case status | Parties, advocates, stage, hearing history and next date for cases in courts on the system. See what each case status means. | services.ecourts.gov.in (district courts); hcservices.ecourts.gov.in (High Courts) |
| Cause lists | The daily lists of cases each court will hear. Our guide on how to read an Indian court cause list walks through each column. | The same two portals |
| Orders and judgments | Uploaded by the courts and viewable online, plus a separate judgment search portal for decided matters | judgments.ecourts.gov.in |
| e-Filing | Electronic filing of cases and documents | filing.ecourts.gov.in |
| e-Pay | Online payment of court fees, fines and deposits | pay.ecourts.gov.in |
| Virtual courts | Online disposal of traffic challan cases without a court visit | vcourts.gov.in |
| e-Sewa Kendras | Help desks for litigants and lawyers without internet access | At court complexes |
| NJDG | The National Judicial Data Grid, a public dashboard of pending and disposed case figures by court | njdg.ecourts.gov.in |
What are the five parts of the eCourts system?
When people say “eCourts”, they usually mean one of five systems without realising it. The Case Information System (CIS) is the software running inside court complexes. The National Judicial Data Grid aggregates pendency and disposal figures. The eCourts Services portal and mobile app let citizens look up case status and cause lists. The judgment search portal lets the public search decided matters. And the video conferencing setup runs virtual hearings. Each has its own address and its own way of presenting data.
Experienced users learn to jump between them: cause list on the portal, order from the judgment search, pendency from NJDG, hearing link from the specific court’s page. High Court case data has its own eCourts services portal, and the Supreme Court runs its own website at sci.gov.in. Our map of India’s court data stack, from NJDG to APIs lays out how these pieces fit together.
How do you check a case on the official eCourts portal?
- Open services.ecourts.gov.in for district courts or hcservices.ecourts.gov.in for High Courts, or use the eCourts Services app.
- If you have the 16-character CNR, enter it in the CNR Number search. You do not need to pick a court.
- Without a CNR, choose Case Status, then select the state, district and court complex.
- Pick a search tab (Party Name, Case Number, Filing Number, Advocate, FIR Number, Act or Case Type), fill in the fields and type the captcha.
- Click Go, then View to open the case history, hearing dates and orders.
For court-by-court detail, read our guide on how to check your court case status online.
How does the CNR number work, and does it follow a case to appeal?
Every case on the eCourts system carries a 16-character CNR that identifies it uniquely, but the CNR is generated by the eCourts system of the court where the case is filed. It stays with the case in that court system, usually even on a transfer within the district, but it does not follow the case to a higher court. The first six characters name the court establishment (for example, DLSE02 in the CNR DLSE020085262026, a 2026 case before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, South East, at Saket in Delhi), followed by a six-digit serial and the four-digit year. Within one court, the CNR stays the same while the case moves from filing to registration to disposal, even if its local case number changes.
It does not follow the case up the ladder. When a district court decision is appealed to the High Court, the appeal is a new case there with its own High Court CNR, and a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court gets another CNR starting with SCIN01. To trace a dispute across courts you use party names and the case numbers each court cites. For the full structure with examples, read CNR Number Decoded. Tribunals that do not issue CNRs are a separate story; our post on tribunal CNR generation explains how eCourtsIndia mints a CNR for 14 tribunals.
Alongside the CNR, every case has a filing number, a registration number and a case type code that varies by court. Knowing these four identifiers is the difference between finding a case in a minute and losing an afternoon to it.
How is eCourtsIndia.com different from ecourts.gov.in?
ecourts.gov.in is the official Government of India portal; eCourtsIndia.com is a private, non-government platform built on the same public court data, adding one search across the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts and 18 tribunal types, plus AI and workflow tools. The government system publishes the record. eCourtsIndia makes it faster to find, follow and use.
| ecourts.gov.in (official) | eCourtsIndia.com (private) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | The e-Committee of the Supreme Court, with the Department of Justice; the portal is maintained by NIC | An independent private company, not affiliated with any court or government body |
| Status of the data | The official source | A copy of public court records, reformatted and linked |
| How you search | CNR search without picking a court; party-name, advocate and case-number searches run one court complex at a time | One search across the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts in all 36 states and UTs, and 18 tribunal types |
| Cost | Free | Search, cause lists and directories free; alerts, AI summaries and downloads paid through credits (as of September 2026) |
| Certified copies | Apply to the court’s copying section | Not available. Online copies are information copies |
Here is what eCourtsIndia adds, with figures from our own index (not government statistics). For how it compares with legal research databases, see how eCourtsIndia compares with Indian Kanoon and SCC Online.
- One search: 32 crore+ case records and 125 crore+ court orders and judgments (as of September 2026) from the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts in all 36 states and union territories, and 18 tribunal and commission types, searchable from one box.
- AI tools: AI order summaries at ₹2 per order, and AI Clerk (from ₹0.25 per use), which files and sorts case documents and answers questions from the record. It runs on credits: 50 free credits a month, with paid plans from ₹250 + 18% GST a month (prices as of September 2026). Read Meet the AI Clerk.
- WhatsApp and email case alerts when a tracked case gets a new date, order or status (₹5 per case per month plus ₹0.50 per delivered alert per channel, as of September 2026). See how to enable case alerts.
- Directories: a lawyer directory of 34 lakh+ advocate profiles built from case records, a list of bar-card verified advocates you can contact, 82,000+ judge profiles, and litigant search across 79 crore+ party records (party entries, not unique people).
- Cause lists: daily cause lists for district and taluka courts, refreshed daily from eCourts Services and searchable by lawyer or litigant across a date range, at ecourtsindia.com/causelist.
- Crime Reports: FIR PDFs collected from several states and UTs (collected records, not all FIRs registered) at ecourtsindia.com/CrimeReports, ₹1 per PDF.
- IndiaCode: bare Acts and sections with the judgments that cite them at indiacode.ecourtsindia.com. Our IndiaCode launch post explains it.
- LegalCheck: a private court-record matching report on a person or company, usually ready in minutes, at legalcheck.ecourtsindia.com. It is not an identity check or a police clearance certificate. See the LegalCheck launch.
- For developers: a self-serve REST API with 23 endpoints and ₹200 of free credits on signup (September 2026), explained in our eCourtsIndia API guide, and an MCP server at mcp.ecourtsindia.com that lets AI assistants query cases, cause lists and statutes directly. You can connect the eCourtsIndia MCP server to Claude in a few steps.
- Apps: Android, iOS and a Chrome extension that shows upcoming hearings and cause-list listings for your tracked cases (free account needed).
Searching cases, cause lists and the directories is free, with no login needed (as of September 2026). Paid items are listed on the pricing page.
Which courts are covered by eCourts?
The government eCourts system centres on district and subordinate courts across all states and union territories, with High Court data also served through the eCourts Services portal, and the Supreme Court running its own website (sci.gov.in) while reporting its figures to the NJDG since September 2023. Many tribunals sit outside the eCourts umbrella and publish on their own portals. Our directory of India’s courts on eCourts lists court and bench codes.
Since 14 September 2023, when the Supreme Court joined the National Judicial Data Grid, NJDG has covered all three tiers of the Indian judiciary, according to the Press Information Bureau.
eCourtsIndia indexes what these courts and tribunals publish online, in one search:
- Supreme Court of India: 11 lakh+ case records. See how to check Supreme Court case status.
- All 25 High Courts and their benches, including the Hon’ble Bombay High Court’s benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa and its Kolhapur circuit bench, which began sitting in August 2025. See High Court case status for all 25 courts, and benches and bench types explained.
- District and taluka courts in all 36 states and union territories, including family courts, labour courts and motor accident claims tribunals that sit within the district system.
- 18 tribunal and commission types, including NCLT, NCLAT, ITAT, CESTAT, DRT, DRAT, NGT, AFT, SAT, TDSAT, APTEL, GSTAT, RCT and consumer commissions, with 44 lakh+ tribunal records. See NCLT and NCLAT case status.
Is the data on eCourtsIndia official?
eCourtsIndia is not a government website, and it does not create or change court data. Case records, orders, cause lists and hearing dates come from the official court systems: the eCourts services for district courts, the Supreme Court and High Court websites, and tribunal portals. eCourtsIndia reformats, links and enriches that data so it is easier to search. AI summaries and tags are generated by eCourtsIndia’s software and can contain errors. For use in legal proceedings, a certified copy issued by the court remains the standard; what you read online is an information copy. When in doubt about a date, the court’s own record is the final word.
How do court orders and judgments get online?
When a judge signs an order, the court uploads it into its case system, and from there it reaches the public case status page and, for final judgments, the judgment search portal. How quickly that happens varies from court to court and even complex to complex; some orders are online the same day, others take longer, and older orders are sometimes scanned images rather than text.
For the working lawyer this has changed the old routine of sending a clerk to collect a copy just to plan the next step. You still get a certified copy for formal filing, but the working copy is online. Our guide on downloading court orders and judgments explains the options.
What are the limits of the eCourts platform today?
The official system still has gaps. On the official portals, a party-name search runs one court complex at a time, so searching across districts or states takes many separate searches. The interface varies by state and by court level. Some tribunals sit outside eCourts entirely. Order PDFs are sometimes scanned images with no searchable text. Case type names differ from court to court, and our guide shows how case type codes differ by court. These are solvable problems, and Phase III is funding many of the fixes.
The practical approach in the meantime: use the official portal for definitive verification, and a layered product for everyday search, tracking and cross-court lookups. The portal is the source of truth; the layered product is where you get work done.
How do you get started for free?
- Visit ecourtsindia.com/search.
- Search by CNR, party name, advocate or case number. No login is needed.
- Create a free account to organise cases under clients and turn on WhatsApp and email alerts.
- If a case is missing, report it through Add a Missing Case. Developers can sign up for the API directly.
Search 32 crore+ Indian court case records in one place (as of September 2026). Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts and 18 tribunal types. Free to search, no login needed.
Related reading: How to check your court case status online • CNR Number Decoded • eCourts Phase III breakdown. Published by the eCourtsIndia Data Team. General information, not legal advice. Spotted an error? Write to support@ecourtsindia.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the eCourts system in India?
The eCourts system is the Government of India’s Mission Mode Project to computerise courts and publish court information online. It is funded by the Department of Justice and overseen by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court, and its portal, ecourts.gov.in, is maintained by NIC. Anyone can check case status, cause lists and orders there. eCourtsIndia.com is a separate private platform that makes this data searchable in one place.
When did the eCourts project start, and what are its phases?
The project has been under implementation since 2007. Phase I began in 2007 and, with extended timelines, ended on 30 March 2015. It computerised district and subordinate courts. The Government sanctioned Phase II on 4 August 2015, and it concluded in 2023. The Union Cabinet approved Phase III on 13 September 2023 as a four-year Central Sector Scheme with a ₹7,210 crore outlay. Our Phase III breakdown has details.
What services does eCourts provide?
eCourts offers online case status, daily cause lists, orders and judgments, a judgment search portal, e-filing, e-payment of court fees and fines, virtual courts for traffic challans, and e-Sewa Kendras at court complexes for people without internet access. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) publishes pending and disposed case figures for the Supreme Court, the High Courts and district courts. To search it all together, with alerts, use eCourtsIndia search.
How is eCourtsIndia.com different from ecourts.gov.in?
ecourts.gov.in is the official portal, run under the e-Committee of the Supreme Court and maintained by NIC. eCourtsIndia.com is an independent private platform, not affiliated with any government body or court. It indexes the same public records (32 crore+ case records as of September 2026) in one search across the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts and 18 tribunal types, and adds alerts, AI order summaries, directories and an API. Searching is free on eCourtsIndia.
Does a CNR number stay the same when a case goes on appeal?
No. A CNR (Case Number Record) is the 16-character ID that the eCourts Case Information System gives a case. It stays the same while the case moves through that court, and usually when a case is transferred within the district. An appeal is a new case, so the High Court or Supreme Court gives it a new CNR. Trace a dispute across courts by party names and case numbers. Read CNR Number Decoded.
Is the data on eCourtsIndia official?
No. eCourtsIndia is not a government website. Its case records, orders, cause lists and hearing dates come from official court sources, such as eCourts Services, the Supreme Court and High Court websites and tribunal portals, and it does not change their content. AI summaries are generated by eCourtsIndia’s software and can contain errors. In legal proceedings, rely on a certified copy issued by the court. Start a search on eCourtsIndia.
Sources
- e-Committee, Supreme Court of India: E-Courts Mission Mode Project (brief overview). Checked 28 September 2026. Supports the 2005 National Policy and Action Plan, Phase I from 2007 to 30 March 2015, Phase II sanction on 4 August 2015 and the launch of ecourts.gov.in.
- e-Committee, Supreme Court of India: Introduction. Checked 28 September 2026. Supports how the e-Committee was constituted.
- Press Information Bureau: Cabinet approves eCourts Phase III for 4 years (13 September 2023). Checked 28 September 2026. Supports the ₹7,210 crore outlay, the Phase III components, “under implementation since 2007” and Phase II concluding in 2023.
- Press Information Bureau: Supreme Court of India onboards the National Judicial Data Grid (14 September 2023). Checked 28 September 2026.
- eCourts Services portal, ecourts.gov.in. Checked 28 September 2026. Supports the service list and addresses, the court-complex counts and NIC as maintainer.
- eCourts Services, district courts: Case Status. Checked 28 September 2026. Supports the search steps and the court-complex-by-complex search.
- eCourtsIndia: Pricing. Prices as of September 2026.