There is no free national criminal record search in India. Here is what does work.
You cannot look up anyone’s criminal record by name on a single government site. What you can do for free is search court records by party name, read FIRs some state police publish, and check the higher courts. Each covers part of the picture. None proves guilt.
A “criminal record check” in India is really two checks: a court record search, which anyone can run for free, and police records, which only the police can search. The free eCourtsIndia litigant search covers 32 crore+ court and tribunal records in one place.
No login needed to search. eCourtsIndia is an independent platform, not a government or police website.
Last updated: 3 November 2026
Key takeaways
- No public national database. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ Digital Police portal says crime and criminal data can be searched by authorised police officers only.
- Court records are free to search. The eCourts portals, High Court and Supreme Court sites, and the eCourtsIndia litigant search all take a party name at no cost.
- FIRs are patchy. On 3 November 2026 we confirmed FIR view or download pages for five states: Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Goa, plus a login-based one in Uttar Pradesh. You usually need the police station and FIR number, not a name.
- Free name searches mislead. “Rahul Sharma” alone appears in 33,800 court records as of 3 November 2026. A hit is not your person until the father’s name, city and age line up.
- Some things cost money or are closed. A passport PCC costs ₹500, police verification runs through the state police, and sensitive FIRs are not published at all.
Is there a criminal record database in India you can search by name?
No. India has no public criminal record database that you can search by a person’s name. The national crime records sit inside police systems, and the government says plainly that only authorised police officers can search them.
The Ministry of Home Affairs runs the Digital Police portal, which is built on the national crime records network (CCTNS). Its home page describes a database of current and past crime, including people accused or convicted in criminal cases. It then adds: “To protect privacy of individuals concerned and for National security reasons the Crime and Criminal data and reports can be searched by authorized Police officers only.” Citizens who ask for antecedent verification get their reply by email, not a search box.
So when a website promises a “free criminal record check” for any name, ask what it is actually searching. In almost every case the honest answer is one of three things:
- Court records. Cases that reached a court or tribunal, where the person is named as a party. These are public, and searching them is free.
- Published FIRs. First Information Reports that a state police force has put online. Coverage varies by state, and you usually need the station and number.
- Police verification or a certificate. An enquiry the police carry out on request. This is not a search you run yourself, and it often carries a fee.
Our guide to court check vs police verification vs FIR search explains how these differ in detail. This post focuses on the money question: which parts you can do yourself for free, which you cannot, and where free results can lead you wrong.
What can you check for free, and where?
You can search court records by party name for free on government portals and on eCourtsIndia, and you can view FIRs free on some state police portals. The catch is that the government tools are split by court, and none of them tells you whether a match is really your person.
| Free source | What you can search | What you need | The limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| eCourts Services, district courts | Case status by party name, case number, FIR number, advocate or Act | State, district, court complex and establishment, then name, registration year and a captcha | One court establishment at a time. You must know where to look. |
| eCourts Services, High Courts | Case status by party name, FIR number and more | High Court and bench, name, registration year, captcha | One High Court bench at a time. |
| Supreme Court of India | Case status by party name | Petitioner or respondent, name, diary year, status, captcha | Supreme Court only, one year at a time. |
| National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) | Pending and disposed case statistics by state and district | Nothing; dashboards are open | Built for statistics, not for looking up a person. |
| eCourtsIndia litigant search | Cases naming a party across the Supreme Court, High Courts, district courts and tribunals | A name; filters for state, case type, status, court and Act | A name match only. You still decide which records belong to your person. |
| State police “View FIR” pages | Published FIRs | Usually district, police station, FIR number or a date range | Only some states; sensitive FIRs withheld; rarely searchable by name. |
The government eCourts portals
The official eCourts case status page lets you search by “Petitioner/Respondent”. Its own help text says the party name can be “the name of the Petitioner, Plaintiff, Complainant, Respondent, Defendant, Appellant, Accused or Extra Party”, so an accused person’s criminal case will show up if you search the right court. You enter at least three letters of the name, the registration year, pick pending, disposed or both, and solve a captcha.
That right court is the problem. You first select a state, a district, a court complex and an establishment. A person from Lucknow with a cheque-bounce case in Gurugram will not appear unless you search the Gurugram court, for the right year. Covering a whole country this way means thousands of searches.
One feature people miss: the same page has a search by FIR number. Pick the police station, enter the FIR number and year, and you can see whether that FIR has turned into a court case. The High Court services site offers the same FIR search for each High Court bench. Our guide on how to check FIR status online walks through that route.
The eCourts disclaimer is worth reading too. It says the information “is not meant for legal evidence” and asks visitors to cross-check with the authorities concerned (eCourts disclaimer, read 3 November 2026). Any online result, ours included, is a lead to verify, not a certificate.
NJDG: useful context, not a person search
The National Judicial Data Grid shows the scale of what you are searching. When we read its district court dashboard on 3 November 2026, it showed 5,16,39,674 pending cases, of which 4,04,09,513 were criminal. Those are counts by state, district and age, not a list of names. NJDG tells you how big the haystack is. It does not find the needle.
The free eCourtsIndia litigant search
The eCourtsIndia litigant search pulls the public court record into one index, so a single name search runs across the Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts in 36 states and UTs, and 18 tribunal families. The litigant directory showed 35,23,11,846 case records as of 3 November 2026. Searching and opening case pages is free, with no login. Step-by-step instructions are below, and the full filter reference is in our litigant search guide.
Which states let you view or download FIRs online?
On 3 November 2026 we confirmed a public FIR view or download service on the official police sites of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Goa, and a login-based “View FIR” link for Uttar Pradesh. For other states we could not confirm the service from the official page that day, so we mark them “not confirmed” rather than guess.
Why some FIRs are online at all: in Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 914, Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 68 of 2016, decided on 7 September 2016, the Supreme Court directed that FIRs be uploaded on the police website, or the state government website, within 24 hours of registration. Connectivity problems can stretch that to 48 hours, and at most 72. Sensitive FIRs, such as sexual offences, POCSO, insurgency and terrorism cases, are kept off, and only an officer of Deputy Superintendent of Police rank or above can decide that. The directions are reproduced in full in a Central Information Commission order, and SCC Online reported that uploading was to start from 15 November 2016.
| State or UT | Official page | What we saw on 3 November 2026 | Search by name? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi | delhipolice.gov.in/viewfir.html | “View FIR” page linking to FIRs from 01-07-2015, plus separate e-FIR views for property theft and motor vehicle theft | Not confirmed |
| Maharashtra | citizen.mahapolice.gov.in | “Search & View Published FIR” by date range, unit and police station; FIR number optional. From date must be after 1 January 2017, range under 90 days | No |
| Haryana | haryanapolice.gov.in | “FIR Download” under Citizen Services, plus searches for FIRs on road accidents and financial crime | Not confirmed |
| Goa | citizen.goapolice.gov.in | “View FIR” in the main menu of the citizen portal | Not confirmed |
| Uttar Pradesh | uppolice.gov.in | “View FIR” link that opens the CCTNS UP citizen portal login | Not confirmed; login required |
| Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh | ksp.karnataka.gov.in/firsearch, mppolice.gov.in View FIR | Pages did not load for us on 3 November 2026. Our FIR guide recorded them as live on 28 September 2026 | Not confirmed |
| Kerala, West Bengal | keralapolice.gov.in, wbpolice.gov.in | Home pages loaded, but we saw no “View FIR” link on them | Not confirmed |
| Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and others | State police citizen portals | Official pages did not load for us, so we could not check | Not confirmed |
Three practical notes. First, these pages are built around a police station and an FIR number or date range, not a person’s name, so they help most when you already know which FIR you are looking for. Second, the Digital Police portal lists “obtaining the copies of FIRs” among the services that state police citizen portals provide, and offers a state drop-down at digitalpolice.gov.in to reach them. Third, if you are the informant or the victim, the police must give you a copy of the FIR free of cost under Section 173 of the BNSS.
Browsing published FIRs on eCourtsIndia
eCourtsIndia also runs Crime Reports, a collection of published FIR PDFs. As of 3 November 2026 it held 38,48,248 FIR PDFs from 12 states and union territories, led by Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Browsing by state, police district and station is free; opening an FIR PDF costs a one-time ₹1 after you sign in. These are collected records, not every FIR the police registered, and the collection is organised by police station, not by person. Crime Reports is separate from LegalCheck.
What is not free, or not public at all?
Police records themselves are not public, police certificates usually carry a fee, and sensitive FIRs are withheld by design. Here is what sits outside the free routes.
- The national crime database. CCTNS and the Digital Police search are for authorised police officers only. No private company, including eCourtsIndia, can search them for you.
- Sensitive FIRs. Under the Youth Bar directions, FIRs in sexual offences, POCSO, insurgency, terrorism and similar cases are not uploaded. A person aggrieved can ask the Superintendent of Police, or the Commissioner in a metro, whose three-officer committee decides within three days.
- A passport police clearance certificate (PCC). Passport Seva’s fee structure lists the PCC at ₹500 (read 3 November 2026). The Ministry of External Affairs says a PCC is issued for residence, employment, long-term visas or immigration abroad, and not for a tourist visa (MEA PCC page).
- Police verification and character certificates. Tenant, domestic help and employee verification run through state police portals and police stations, with state-set forms and fees. Only the police can issue them.
- Certified copies. A court’s certified copy of an order is a separate, paid application to that court. Free online orders are not certified copies.
- Identity-matched court reports. Deciding which of thousands of same-name records belong to one person is the part that costs time or money. More on that below.
How to check criminal cases by name for free on eCourtsIndia
Search the name at ecourtsindia.com/litigant, narrow it with the state, case type, status and court filters, then open each case page and compare the parties’ details with what you know about the person. It takes a few minutes for an uncommon name and much longer for a common one.
- Open the search. Go to ecourtsindia.com/litigant and type the full name. You can also build a profile link directly: lowercase the name and join the words with hyphens, as in
ecourtsindia.com/litigant/firstname-lastname. - Narrow by state. Use the States filter, or add
?sc=and a two-letter code to the link, for examplesc=UPorsc=MH. Start with every state the person has lived or worked in. - Look at criminal case types. The Case Types filter (
ct=) lists what the name appears in. Criminal complaint cases (CC), bail applications (BA), anticipatory bail (ABA) and sessions cases (SC) are the usual criminal footprints. Cheque-bounce complaints under the Negotiable Instruments Act also appear as criminal complaint cases. - Check the Acts and Sections filter. It groups cases by law, such as IPC, BNS, NI Act or NDPS Act. Offences after 1 July 2024 are charged under the BNS, so check both old and new section numbers.
- Split pending from disposed. Use the Case Status filter (
st=PENDINGorst=DISPOSED). Remember that “disposed” is a status, not an outcome. It can mean acquittal, conviction, settlement or withdrawal. - Narrow to one court if you know it. The Courts filter (
cc=) shows which courts the name appears in, from a magistrate’s court to a High Court bench. - Open every candidate case. The case page shows both parties, the court, filing and decision dates, the Acts and Sections, and the orders. Compare the father’s or husband’s name, the address and the age where the order gives them.
- Write down the CNR. Each case has a 16-character CNR that identifies it on every court portal. Our guide to the CNR number explains how to read it, and you can paste it into the official eCourts site to cross-check.
Filters stack. A link like ecourtsindia.com/litigant/firstname-lastname?sc=DL&ct=CC&st=PENDING reads as “pending criminal complaint cases naming this person in Delhi”. Our litigant search guide lists the codes for every filter.
Why do free name searches mislead?
Because a name is not an identity in India, and court records rarely carry an ID number. A free search shows you every record with that name. It cannot tell you which of them, if any, is the person in front of you.
Take one ordinary name. An exact-phrase search for “Rahul Sharma” across the eCourtsIndia index returned 33,800 court records as of 3 November 2026: 22,619 disposed and 10,972 pending. They spread across the country, with 10,105 in Uttar Pradesh, 4,301 in Rajasthan, 3,599 in Madhya Pradesh and 3,566 in Delhi. Several even name a Rahul Sharma on both sides of the same case. These records belong to many different people.
Free searches fail in four predictable ways:
- False alarms. A namesake’s theft case lands on an innocent candidate. This is the costliest mistake, because it can lose someone a job or a home.
- Missed cases. The court record says “R. Sharma”, “Rahul Kumar Sharma” or misspells the surname, and an exact search skips it.
- Wrong role. The person is the complainant, not the accused. The title “State vs Rahul Sharma” and “Rahul Sharma vs State” mean very different things.
- Misread status. A pending case is undecided, and a disposed case may have ended in acquittal. Neither is a conviction. The case status dictionary explains each label.
We go deeper into this in same name, wrong person, which looks at namesake counts for common Indian names and how to read a match.
Free vs paid: what does a paid check add?
A paid court check adds identity matching, every court in one pass, and a written report. It does not add police records. Whether that is worth paying for depends on how common the name is and what rides on the decision.
A note on interest: eCourtsIndia makes LegalCheck, the paid report described here, so read this table with that in mind. Other providers sell court record checks too, and our sibling post on background verification and court check costs in India compares published prices.
| Question | Free name search (eCourts, eCourtsIndia litigant search) | Paid court check (for example LegalCheck) | Police route (verification, PCC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | LegalCheck web: ₹100 per check plus small AI usage, first 3 checks free. API: ₹99, or ₹33 with a subscription | PCC ₹500 on Passport Seva; police verification fees set by each state |
| What it reads | Court and tribunal records naming the party | Court and tribunal records, matched to one person | Police records the public cannot see |
| Covers FIRs not yet in court? | No | No | Yes, within that police force’s records |
| Separates namesakes? | No. You do it by reading each case | Yes, using father or spouse name, city and age | Done by the police |
| Courts covered in one go | Government portals: one court or bench at a time. eCourtsIndia: all tiers | Supreme Court, all 25 High Courts, district and taluka courts, 18 tribunal families | Not a court search |
| Time | Minutes to hours, depending on the name | Most reports in 1 to 3 minutes | Days or weeks, depending on the state and passport office |
| What you get | A list of cases | A report: each case explained, same-name records set aside with reasons, and what was searched | A verification report or certificate |
When is free enough? If the name is uncommon, you know the city, and you only need a quick look, the free litigant search is often enough. Read every case you find. When the name is common, the decision matters, or you need a record of what you checked, a matched report saves hours and lowers the risk of blaming the wrong person. For a full walk-through of a proper check, see our court record check guide.
Which route fits your situation?
Start with a free court search in almost every case, then add the police route where the law, the role or a foreign authority asks for it.
- Checking yourself. Search your own name free, especially before a PCC application or a job abroad. The PCC form asks about pending criminal proceedings, which is a court question. If a namesake’s case shows up, our litigant guide explains how to raise it.
- Renting out a flat. Run a court search on each adult tenant, then complete police tenant registration where your city requires it. Our sibling post on tenant court check vs police verification covers the rules.
- Hiring a driver, maid or caregiver. Do both. A recent FIR still under investigation will not appear in court records, so ask for police verification as well.
- Hiring office staff. With the candidate’s consent, run a court check and judge any finding by relevance to the role. Our background check guide covers the hiring sequence.
- You know the FIR already. Use the state police portal, if your state has one, or Crime Reports, then follow the court case by FIR number on eCourts or by the accused’s name.
What this does not mean
- No result is not a clean record. An FIR still under investigation, a case in a court you did not search, or a misspelt name can all hide from a free search.
- A name match is not your person. With 33,800 records for one common name, a hit means nothing until the details match.
- An FIR is not a conviction. It records an allegation. Many FIRs end in a closure report, discharge or acquittal.
- Pending is not guilty, and disposed is not an outcome. Read the final order to know how a case ended.
- “Not confirmed” in our state table does not mean a state has no FIR portal. It means we could not verify it on the official page on 3 November 2026.
- A court check is not police verification. Neither eCourtsIndia nor any private provider can issue a police verification or a PCC.
Start free. Pay only when the name is common or the stakes are high.
Search 32 crore+ court and tribunal records by name, free. When you need namesakes separated and a written report, LegalCheck’s first 3 web checks are free.
LegalCheck covers courts and tribunals only. FIRs and police records are not part of the report. Check the current offer on the LegalCheck page.
Sources and method
- Ministry of Home Affairs, Digital Police portal: crime and criminal data searchable by authorised police officers only; services provided by state police citizen portals. Read 3 November 2026.
- eCourts Services, district court case status (party name and FIR number search) and disclaimer; High Court services; Supreme Court party name search. Read 3 November 2026.
- NJDG district court dashboard: 5,16,39,674 pending cases, 4,04,09,513 criminal. Read 3 November 2026.
- State police pages: Delhi Police View FIR, Maharashtra Police Search & View Published FIR, Haryana Police (FIR Download), Goa Police citizen portal (View FIR), Uttar Pradesh Police (View FIR, login). Read 3 November 2026. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh pages did not load for us that day; Kerala and West Bengal home pages loaded but showed no View FIR link.
- Supreme Court, Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India, 2016 SCC OnLine SC 914, W.P. (Crl.) No. 68 of 2016, decided 7 September 2016: directions on uploading FIRs, as reproduced in a Central Information Commission order (CIC/DEPOL/A/2019/132210) and reported by SCC Online. Read 3 November 2026.
- Passport Seva fee structure (PCC ₹500; the page notes the fee schedule may be restructured) and MEA PCC page. Read 3 November 2026.
- eCourtsIndia litigant directory (35,23,11,846 case records) and Crime Reports (38,48,248 FIR PDFs from 12 states and UTs, ₹1 per PDF, measured 3 November 2026, 7:17 am IST). Read 3 November 2026.
- Namesake count: eCourtsIndia search API, litigant “Rahul Sharma”, exact phrase match, no other filters, with state and status facets. Run 3 November 2026. Counts change as records are added.
- LegalCheck price and coverage: ecourtsindia.com/legalcheck and ecourtsindia.com/api/pricing. Read 3 November 2026.
- Method: we read each official page ourselves and quote only what it showed. We did not file any application, log in to any police portal, or test FIR downloads. Where a page did not load, we say “not confirmed” instead of relying on third-party guides.
Frequently asked questions
Can I check someone’s criminal record online in India for free?
Partly. There is no free national criminal record search, but court records are public and free to search by name. The government eCourts portals work one court at a time, while the free eCourtsIndia litigant search covers every tier in one search. Police records and FIRs still under investigation are not included, and a name match is not proof that the case belongs to your person.
Is there a criminal record database in India that the public can search?
No. The national crime records sit in police systems. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ Digital Police portal says crime and criminal data can be searched by authorised police officers only, for privacy and national security reasons. Citizens can request antecedent verification and get a reply by email, but they cannot run the search themselves. Court records, by contrast, are public.
How do I check criminal cases against a person by name?
Search the name as a party on the eCourts case status page, which covers petitioners, respondents and accused persons, but you must pick each district court establishment and year. A national index such as eCourtsIndia searches all courts at once. Filter by criminal case types such as complaint cases, bail applications and sessions cases, then open each case to check the details.
Can I search FIRs online by name?
Rarely. State police FIR pages are usually organised by district, police station, FIR number or date range, not by the accused’s name. Sensitive FIRs are not published at all. Once an FIR becomes a court case, you can search the accused’s name in court records, or use the FIR number search on eCourts. Our guide to checking FIR status online shows both routes.
Which states let you view or download FIRs online?
On 3 November 2026 we confirmed public FIR view or download pages on the official police sites of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana and Goa, and a login-based View FIR link for Uttar Pradesh. Other states may offer it too, but their pages did not load for us that day. The Digital Police portal has a state drop-down that leads to each state police citizen portal.
How much does a police clearance certificate cost in India?
Passport Seva’s fee structure lists the police clearance certificate at ₹500 when read on 3 November 2026, with no Tatkaal option. The page notes the schedule may be restructured, so confirm before you book. A PCC is issued for residence, employment, long-term visas or immigration abroad. State police character certificates for jobs in India have their own state fees.
Why does a free name search show cases that are not the person’s?
Because many people share a name and court records rarely carry an ID. An exact search for Rahul Sharma returned 33,800 court records as of 3 November 2026, across many states. Spelling variants, initials and missing father’s names add more confusion. Compare the father’s name, city and age before linking any case to someone. Our post on same name, wrong person explains how.
What does a paid criminal record check add over a free search?
A paid court check matches records to one person using details like father’s or spouse’s name, city and age, searches every court and tribunal in one pass, and gives you a written report. It does not add police records or unregistered FIRs. On LegalCheck, the first 3 web checks are free, then ₹100 per check plus small AI usage, as of 3 November 2026.
Important: This article is general information, not legal advice. Police portals, fees and timelines change; check the official page before you rely on it. eCourtsIndia is an independent, non-government platform. Court data is drawn from public court sources and can lag the official record. LegalCheck is a court-record matching report based on public records and probabilistic identity matching; it is not an FIR search, police verification, police clearance certificate or identity verification. A match is not proof of wrongdoing. Verify identity, read the case and give the person a chance to explain before acting. Use any check only for a lawful purpose, take consent where the law requires it, and keep results confidential.
Search the court record free first. Use a matched report when the name is common or the decision matters.