CourtWatch research — Supreme Court and High Court judgments, precedent search and AI briefs

The library

Supreme Court judgments since 1950, updated every day, and High Court judgments. Every judgment opens into its full text in the reader, with a link to the court's PDF where the court published one. New Supreme Court judgments are added every day; High Court judgments are added in batches.

Precedent search

Type the issue the way you would say it in court: a section, a fact pattern, a party's name or a citation. The search matches on meaning as well as on words, so it finds judgments that discuss the point even when they phrase it differently from you.

• Overruled judgments marked. Where we have found a later judgment overruling a result, in whole or in part, the result says so and names it. Check a citator before you rely on a judgment the search has not marked.
• The latest judgment on the point. Where a recent Supreme Court judgment has dealt with the issue, it is brought up beside the older leading cases instead of being buried under them.
• The High Court authority for your court. Filter to your High Court, or name it in the search, and the results can include that court's own leading judgment on the point, labelled with the court, beside the Supreme Court's.
• Full text. Read the whole judgment, not a headnote.

A free account includes 10 precedent searches a month; paid plans have no monthly cap. The guide to searching case law by legal issue walks through the filters.

Statute search, old and new codes

Look up a section under either code and see its counterpart: IPC and BNS, CrPC and BNSS, the Evidence Act and BSA. A search for IPC section 302 brings up BNS section 103 beside it. Statute search is free for every account.

AI research briefs

Describe the matter, or pick a case you track, and say what the brief is for: bail, quashing, anticipatory bail, an opinion. The brief sets out the law on that point from judgments in the library, and every proposition carries the judgment it comes from, so you can open the judgment and check it. Briefs are written in English or Hindi.

A brief is factual research, not legal advice. It tells you what the judgments say; what to argue is your call.

Briefs come with the Advocate plan (5 a month) and above, and a free account gets a trial brief. Firms on the Firm plan share 20 a month across the firm.

Two examples

Arrest without necessity

The leading authority is Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273, in which the Supreme Court directed that, for offences punishable with up to seven years, the police record their reasons for arrest against the conditions in section 41 CrPC, and that a Magistrate check those reasons before authorising detention. Search the issue in your own words ("arrest for an offence punishable up to seven years, section 41 CrPC checklist") and any judgment we have found overruled is marked as such, and any recent Supreme Court judgment on the point is brought up beside it. Under the new code the provision is section 35 BNSS; statute search shows the two sections side by side.

Bail when the accused was not arrested

Satender Kumar Antil v. Central Bureau of Investigation, (2022) 10 SCC 51, is where the Supreme Court sorted offences into categories and laid down how courts should deal with bail for an accused who was not arrested during investigation and has cooperated with it. Search that issue with your High Court selected, and the results can place that court's own judgments on the point beside the Supreme Court's, each opening into the full text so you can see how the High Court applied it.

Related pages

The court pages set out what CourtWatch reads at each court, the guides cover statute section lookup and AI research briefs step by step, and the pricing page has the plans side by side.