Acquitted, discharged, quashed, compounded, withdrawn. They all close a case. They do not all mean the same thing.
When a background check turns up a case, the first question is how it ended. The answer is in one word on the court record, and that word is easy to misread.
An acquittal means a court tried the case and found the accused not guilty; a discharge means the court found no ground even to frame a charge; quashing means a High Court ended the proceedings; compounding means the parties settled an offence the law allows to be settled; and withdrawal means the prosecutor or the plaintiff stepped back. LegalCheck shows the status and links every finding to the court record, so you can read the final order yourself.
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Last updated: 3 November 2026
Key takeaways
- “Disposed” is a status, not an outcome. It only says the case is over. Open the final order to see how.
- Acquittal and discharge both end a criminal case without conviction, but at different stages, and a discharge can sometimes be revisited.
- Compounding a cheque bounce case leads to acquittal. Every offence under the Negotiable Instruments Act can be compounded, even after conviction.
- Employers may still weigh an acquittal, the Supreme Court has said, especially a benefit-of-doubt acquittal in a serious case, but hiding a case is treated more harshly than the case itself.
- Old acquittals stay online for now. The Supreme Court has stayed orders to remove judgments and news reports while it decides the right to be forgotten.
A court record check is only as useful as the reading of it. A report that says “case found” can mean a man convicted of fraud last year, or a woman who was acquitted ten years ago after a false complaint. The difference is usually one word in the status column.
This guide translates those words. It is written for families, employers and landlords reading a court record check, and for anyone who wants to know what their own old case will look like to someone else.
What does each case outcome mean?
Here are the outcomes you are most likely to see, in plain language. Section numbers are under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on 1 July 2024; the old CrPC section is in brackets because older records use it.
| Outcome on the record | What happened | What it means for the person |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The case is still running | An allegation, not a finding. Check the stage and next date |
| Disposed | The case is over | Tells you nothing about the result. Read the final order |
| Discharged | The court found no sufficient ground to frame a charge (BNSS 250, 262, 268; CrPC 227, 239, 245) | No trial took place. Not a verdict, so it can sometimes be revisited on revision or fresh evidence |
| Acquitted | After trial, the court found the accused not guilty (BNSS 258, 271, 278; CrPC 235, 248, 255) | Cannot be tried again for the same offence. The prosecution or complainant may appeal |
| Quashed | A High Court ended the FIR or proceedings using its inherent powers (BNSS 528; CrPC 482) | The case does not go on. Often after a settlement in a mainly private dispute, or for lack of a case |
| Compounded | The parties settled an offence that the law lets them settle (BNSS 359; CrPC 320) | The settlement has the effect of an acquittal |
| Withdrawn (prosecution) | The public prosecutor withdrew with the court’s consent (BNSS 360; CrPC 321) | Discharge if before charges were framed, acquittal if after |
| Convicted | The court found the accused guilty | Check the sentence and whether an appeal is pending |
| Released on probation | Convicted, but released on good conduct under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 | Section 12 of that Act removes disqualifications attached to the conviction |
| Withdrawn or compromised (civil) | The plaintiff withdrew the suit, or the parties recorded a settlement (CPC Order XXIII) | Usually no finding against anyone. A compromise decree binds the parties |
Our case status dictionary covers the many status labels courts use while a case is still running, such as “for evidence”, “for arguments” and “sine die”.
What is the difference between acquittal and discharge?
Timing and finality. A discharge comes before trial: the judge looks at the police report and documents and finds nothing that justifies framing a charge. An acquittal comes after trial: evidence was led, and the court found the charge not proved. The BNSS now gives the accused 60 days to apply for discharge in many cases.
An acquittal is protected by the rule against double jeopardy in Article 20(2) of the Constitution and Section 337 of the BNSS (CrPC 300). A discharge is not a verdict on the merits, so a higher court can set it aside on revision and the person can face trial. For a background check, both mean the same practical thing at the time you read them: there is no conviction.
What does “quashed” mean?
It means a High Court stopped the case, usually before or during trial. High Courts have inherent powers, saved by Section 528 of the BNSS (CrPC 482), to quash an FIR or criminal proceedings to prevent abuse of process or to secure justice. Article 226 of the Constitution is also used.
A common reason is settlement. In Gian Singh v. State of Punjab (2012), a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that High Courts can quash even non-compoundable cases after a settlement where the dispute is mainly private, such as commercial, financial, matrimonial or family disputes, but not heinous offences such as murder, rape or dacoity, or offences under special laws such as the Prevention of Corruption Act, as summarised by Drishti Judiciary. Many matrimonial cases end this way; our 498A court data analysis shows how often.
Quashing can also be on the merits, where the court finds the complaint does not disclose an offence at all. Our guide to finding similar cases filed by a complainant covers High Court rulings that quashed cases after a pattern of earlier complaints was shown.
Is a compounded case the same as an acquittal?
In effect, yes. Compounding is a settlement the law expressly permits for listed offences, and once an offence is compounded, the accused stands acquitted. Section 147 of the Negotiable Instruments Act makes every offence under that Act compoundable, so cheque bounce cases can be settled at any stage, even after conviction or in appeal, iPleaders explains.
That is why a cheque bounce history is best read as a pattern rather than a single result. Five cheque cases that were all compounded tell you the person paid eventually, but also that five people had to go to court to get paid. Our guide to checking cheque bounce cases by name covers how to read them.
Can an employer still hold an acquitted case against you?
Sometimes, depending on how the acquittal came about and whether you disclosed the case truthfully. The Supreme Court has built a body of law on this, mainly in government jobs, that private employers often follow in spirit.
- Avtar Singh v. Union of India (2016). A three-judge bench set out guidelines: disclosures must be true; an employer may overlook a trivial past case; where an acquittal was on a technical ground or on benefit of doubt in a serious case, the employer may still consider the person’s antecedents; and only what the form specifically asks must be disclosed, LiveLaw reported.
- DIG v. S. Samuthiram (2013). An “honourable” acquittal is one where the prosecution failed and the accused was acquitted after full consideration of the evidence, SCC Online noted.
- Pawan Kumar v. Union of India (2022) and Ravindra Kumar v. State of UP (2024). The Court said suppression should not lead to termination “by a stroke of pen”, and that treating every non-disclosure as a disqualification would be unjust; the nature of the case and the acquittal had to be weighed, SCC Online reported.
- Bappa Barai v. Union of India (August 2026). The Court upheld the discharge of railway protection force constables who deliberately hid pending cases, holding that a later acquittal does not wipe out the suppression, LiveLaw reported.
The lesson for candidates: if a form asks about past cases, answer truthfully, including cases that ended in acquittal. Courts have been far kinder to an honest disclosure of an old case than to a hidden one. For employers: read the outcome and the nature of the case, and give the person a chance to explain, as our safe-hiring guide recommends.
Can my name be removed from an old judgment online?
Not as a settled right, yet. Indian courts have gone both ways. The Gujarat High Court refused to remove an acquittal judgment in 2017, while the Karnataka High Court recognised the right in sensitive cases involving women the same year, and the Delhi High Court in 2021 ordered search engines to de-index an acquittal judgment in an interim order, ThePrint reported.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court stayed a Madras High Court order directing a legal database to remove an acquittal judgment, observing that judgments are part of public records, PTI reported. In February 2026, it stayed a Delhi High Court order that had required a newspaper to take down reports about a man who was later discharged, Bar & Bench reported. The question is pending before the Supreme Court. Until it decides, assume an old case and its outcome remain findable.
How common is each outcome?
Conviction is far from certain, and pendency is huge. The conviction rate for IPC crimes in 2023 was 54%, the Law Ministry told the Rajya Sabha, citing NCRB data, IANS reported. As of 31 December 2025, 4,76,57,328 cases were pending in district and subordinate courts, 63,66,023 in High Courts and 92,101 in the Supreme Court, according to a Lok Sabha reply citing NJDG data, IANS reported.
Put together, that means a background check will turn up many pending cases that may never end in conviction, and many disposed cases that ended in something other than a verdict. Reading the outcome correctly is most of the work.
How to read an outcome in a background check
- Confirm it is the same person. Our same-name study shows how often namesakes appear.
- Check the role. Complainant, accused, petitioner or respondent.
- Open the final order. “Disposed” tells you nothing. The order tells you whether it was an acquittal, a settlement, a withdrawal or a conviction.
- Check for appeals. An acquittal or conviction may be under challenge in a higher court.
- Weigh relevance and time. A compounded cheque case from 2012 matters differently for a tenant than a recent fraud conviction does for a finance job.
- Ask the person. Most outcomes have a story, and most people will tell it.
What this guide does not mean
- It is simplified. Procedure has many exceptions. The final order and a lawyer’s reading are what count.
- An outcome is not a character judgement. An acquittal is an acquittal; a conviction for a minor offence long ago is not the whole person.
- A court check does not show FIRs still under investigation or closed by police. See court checks vs police verification vs FIR search.
- It is not legal advice.
See the case, and how it ended
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Sources and method
- Statutory map: Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, from iPleaders (29 July 2026) and a CrPC to BNSS comparison table hosted by Kerala Prisons; Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, Section 147, via iPleaders (updated 17 June 2026); Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, Section 12, and Amit Singh v. State of Rajasthan (2025), via LiveLaw, 11 January 2025; Code of Civil Procedure, Order XXIII, via LawFoyer, 21 January 2025.
- Supreme Court: Gian Singh (2012) via Drishti Judiciary; Avtar Singh (2016) via LiveLaw, 23 July 2016; S. Samuthiram (2013) via SCC Online, 14 July 2014; Pawan Kumar (2022) via SCC Online, 16 May 2022; Ravindra Kumar (2024) via SCC Online, 28 February 2024; Bappa Barai (2026) via LiveLaw, 19 August 2026.
- Right to be forgotten: ThePrint, 27 May 2021; PTI via The Week, 24 July 2024; Bar & Bench, 6 February 2026. Status as of our check on 3 November 2026.
- Statistics: IANS via NewKerala, 20 December 2025 (NCRB conviction rate 2023); IANS via Ommcom News, 13 February 2026 (NJDG pendency as of 31 December 2025).
- LegalCheck web price and inputs from ecourtsindia.com/legalcheck, read 3 November 2026; case count (35.3 crore cases) from the eCourtsIndia homepage, read 3 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Does an acquittal show up in a background check in India?
Yes, if the case reached a court, it stays on the court record with its outcome. A good court check shows the status and links to the final order, so the reader can see it ended in acquittal rather than conviction.
What does case disposed mean on eCourts?
Disposed means the case is over. It does not say how it ended. The final order will show whether the case was decided, dismissed, withdrawn, settled, or ended in acquittal or conviction.
What is the difference between acquittal and discharge?
A discharge comes before trial, when the court finds no sufficient ground to frame a charge. An acquittal comes after trial, when the court finds the charge not proved. An acquittal is protected against a fresh trial for the same offence; a discharge can sometimes be revisited.
What does quashed mean in a criminal case?
It means a High Court ended the FIR or criminal proceedings using its inherent powers under Section 528 of the BNSS (Section 482 of the old CrPC), for example because the complaint disclosed no offence or the parties settled a mainly private dispute.
Is a compounded case the same as an acquittal?
In effect, yes. When an offence is lawfully compounded, the accused stands acquitted. All offences under the Negotiable Instruments Act, including cheque bounce, can be compounded, even after conviction.
Do I have to disclose an acquitted case on a job application?
Answer exactly what the form asks, truthfully. The Supreme Court has held that only what is specifically asked must be disclosed, and it has treated deliberate suppression much more harshly than the underlying case. If in doubt, disclose and explain.
What is an honourable acquittal?
The Supreme Court has described an honourable acquittal as one where the prosecution fails and the accused is acquitted after full consideration of the evidence, as opposed to an acquittal on a technicality or benefit of doubt. Employers in service matters sometimes treat the two differently.
Can my name be removed from an online judgment?
There is no settled right yet. Some High Courts have ordered de-indexing or removal, but the Supreme Court has stayed such orders and is examining the question. For now, old judgments generally remain public records.
Important: LegalCheck is a court-record matching report based on public records and probabilistic identity matching. It is not an identity certificate, FIR search, police clearance certificate or legal advice. A match is not proof of wrongdoing. Verify identity, read the case and give the person an opportunity to explain before acting. Use reports only for a lawful purpose and keep them confidential. News reports cited here describe allegations unless a court has ruled; the people named are presumed innocent until proven guilty. eCourtsIndia is a private legal-technology platform and is not affiliated with any court or the Government of India. This article is general information and is not legal advice.
Read the outcome before you read the person.