A Glossary of Indian Litigation & Case-Search Terms

Explainer · Indian Litigation

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

When you search case law, read a court order, or hand a file to a junior, the same cluster of terms keeps coming up: cause list, caveat, interlocutory, SLP, certified copy, vakalatnama. Most of these are never explained in one place. This glossary collects the terms that matter most in day-to-day Indian litigation and case-law research, with plain-English definitions and enough context to actually use them.

Quick reference

Vakalatnama: the authority to appear given to an advocate. A fresh one is needed every time you change counsel.
Cause list vs. case status: the cause list shows when a case is listed; case status shows what happened and what the next date is.
Judgment vs. decree vs. order: a decree is the formal civil enforcement document; an order is everything else; a judgment is the court’s reasoning.
Neutral citation: the court’s own reference number, independent of any publisher. Safest to use for citations.
SLP: Special Leave Petition under Article 136 of the Constitution, the main route to the Supreme Court from any court or tribunal.
Ratio decidendi: the binding reason for the decision. Obiter remarks are persuasive, not binding.

01Why terminology trips people up

Indian litigation blends three layers of language: Sanskrit-origin terms inherited from pre-colonial practice (vakalatnama, peshgi), Latin-rooted court language carried over from the colonial-era codes (ex parte, res judicata, inter alia), and English procedural vocabulary that is used with a meaning specific to Indian practice (cause list, board, matter). None of these layers is fully explained by a single reference, and they show up together in the same order sheet or cause list entry.

Legal databases add their own layer

Once you move from the courtroom to a case-law database, a second vocabulary kicks in: neutral citation, catchword, headnote, SCC, AIR, peer citation, semantic search. These terms describe how judgments are organised and retrieved, and they matter because choosing the wrong search term can bury the case you need ten pages down the results.

The cost of not knowing

Misreading a term in an order, misunderstanding the stage a case is at, or mis-citing a judgment in the wrong citation format are real risks. A vakalatnama filed in the wrong form, a caveat not actioned in time, or an interim order confused with a final decree can all cause tangible harm. Knowing the vocabulary is not a nice-to-have for Indian legal practice: it is basic professional safety.

Indian litigation vocabulary mixes three layers: Sanskrit practice terms, Latin court-Latin, and English procedural words with India-specific meanings. They all appear on the same page of an order.

02Court hierarchy and jurisdiction terms

Understanding where a case sits, and why it is there, starts with the hierarchy and the jurisdiction terms attached to each level.

Supreme Court of India: The apex court. It has original, appellate, and advisory jurisdiction. Its judgments bind all courts in India. The Supreme Court’s judgments are the primary source of binding precedent for constitutional and central law questions.
High Court: Each state has a High Court (some states share one). It has original jurisdiction in certain matters, appellate jurisdiction over lower courts, and supervisory jurisdiction over all courts within its territory. High Court judgments bind all subordinate courts in the state.
District Court / Sessions Court: The principal court at the district level. The same court is called the District Court in civil matters and the Sessions Court in criminal matters. It hears original civil suits above a pecuniary limit and sessions (serious criminal) trials.
Civil Judge / JMFC / Magistrate: Courts below the District Court handle smaller civil suits (Civil Judge) and criminal cases (Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, abbreviated JMFC). A Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) is the head magistrate in a district.
Tribunal: A statutory body with jurisdiction over a specific subject matter, such as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the Consumer Forum, and the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT). Tribunal orders can often be challenged before the relevant High Court or the Supreme Court.
Original jurisdiction: The power of a court to hear a case for the first time, rather than on appeal. The High Courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Delhi have significant original civil jurisdiction.
Appellate jurisdiction: The power to hear appeals against decisions of lower courts or tribunals.
Supervisory jurisdiction (Article 227): The High Court’s constitutional power to superintend all courts and tribunals in the state, under Article 227 of the Constitution. Broader than revision but narrower than a full appeal.
Territorial jurisdiction: The geographic area over which a court’s power extends. A suit filed in the wrong court on territorial grounds can be returned or transferred.
Pecuniary jurisdiction: The monetary limit up to which a court can hear a suit. Courts at different levels have different pecuniary jurisdiction limits, which vary by state.

03Procedural and pleading terms

These are the terms you encounter when a case is being initiated or the parties are defining the dispute.

Plaint: The written statement by which a plaintiff commences a civil suit. It must state the cause of action, the relief sought, and the value of the suit for pecuniary jurisdiction purposes.
Written Statement: The defendant’s reply to the plaint. The defendant must admit or deny each allegation and raise all defences, including any counter-claim, in the written statement.
Vakalatnama: The document by which a party authorises an advocate to appear and act on their behalf before a court. It must be filed for the advocate to be on record. In some courts a memo of appearance is used instead for limited purposes.
Caveat: A notice filed under Section 148A CPC asking the court not to pass an ex parte order against the caveator without hearing them. If a caveat is properly lodged, the court must serve notice on the caveator before granting any relief to the opposite party. It remains valid for ninety days.
Writ petition: A petition invoking the constitutional jurisdiction of a High Court (Article 226) or the Supreme Court (Article 32) to enforce fundamental rights or to quash an act or order of a public authority. The main writs are certiorari, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, and habeas corpus.
SLP (Special Leave Petition): A petition to the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution seeking leave to appeal against any judgment, decree, or order of any court or tribunal. The Supreme Court has complete discretion to grant or refuse leave. If leave is granted, the SLP is converted into a civil or criminal appeal.
Revision: A supervisory jurisdiction exercised by a superior court (High Court or Sessions Court) to examine whether a lower court has exercised its jurisdiction correctly. It is narrower than an appeal because it does not re-examine facts, only jurisdiction and legal correctness.
Interlocutory application (IA): An application filed within a pending proceeding for relief on a specific issue, such as a stay, injunction, extension of time, or amendment of pleadings, without waiting for the final disposal of the main case.
Ex parte: Meaning "on one side only". An ex parte order is passed when one party is absent and the matter is heard only on the other party’s submissions. Such orders can usually be challenged by the absent party by filing an application to set them aside and showing sufficient cause for their absence.

04Case stages and hearing terms

A case moves through several stages from filing to final disposal. Each stage has its own vocabulary.

Cause list: The daily list of cases set down for hearing before each court or bench on a given day. Cause lists are published on court websites (and increasingly via legaltech tools) ahead of the hearing date. Cases not reached may be adjourned to the next working day or a later date.
Board: Commonly used as a synonym for the cause list in several High Courts, especially the Bombay and Calcutta High Courts. "On the board" means the case is listed for hearing that day.
Admission hearing: The initial hearing where the court decides whether to admit a case for regular hearing. At this stage the court may issue notice to the opposite party, grant or refuse an interim order, or dismiss the petition if it has no merit on the face of it.
Notice / rule nisi: After admission, the court issues notice to the opposite party to appear and show cause. In writ proceedings in some High Courts, "rule" refers to the formal direction to the opposite party to show cause why the relief should not be granted.
Final hearing / regular hearing: The stage at which the case is argued on the merits, after pleadings are complete and all interim applications are decided. Evidence is led in trial courts at this stage.
Part-heard matter: A case whose hearing has begun but is not yet concluded, typically because arguments extended beyond the time available in one sitting. Part-heard matters are given priority on listing to the same bench or judge that heard the earlier part.
Adjournment: A postponement of the hearing to a later date. Excessive adjournments are a recognised cause of delay in Indian litigation. Courts now impose costs for adjournments in many jurisdictions.
Disposal / final order: The final disposal of a case by the court, whether by judgment, decree, order, or withdrawal. A case is said to be "disposed off" once no further proceedings remain before that court.

Cause list vs. case status

The cause list tells you when a case is listed for hearing. Case status tells you what happened at the last hearing and what the next date is. They are different pieces of information and are often shown in different sections of a court’s website or a case management tool.

05Orders, judgments, and decrees

Courts produce several types of written decisions, and confusing them leads to errors in compliance and citation.

Judgment: The statement of the court recording its reasons and conclusions on the points in dispute. A judgment in a civil suit precedes and forms the basis of the decree. In appeal and writ courts, the judgment and the final order are often the same document.
Decree: The formal expression of the adjudication in a civil suit, signed by the judge and sealed by the court. The decree is the document you execute for recovery of money, possession, injunction, and similar civil reliefs. There is no decree in criminal cases or in most appeal proceedings.
Order: Any decision of a court that is not a decree. This includes orders on interlocutory applications, orders for service, orders for extension of time, and orders disposing of applications. Many orders are also final decisions in proceedings that do not result in a decree (such as arbitration references or execution).
Interim order / stay order: An order passed pending the final disposal of a case, protecting the status quo or granting temporary relief. A stay order specifically "stays" (suspends) the operation of a lower court order or a statutory action. Interim orders lapse if the main case is dismissed or withdrawn, unless expressly extended.
Injunction: A court direction restraining a person from doing (prohibitory injunction) or compelling a person to do (mandatory injunction) a specific act. Temporary injunctions are granted under Order XXXIX of the CPC on the triple test of prima facie case, balance of convenience, and irreparable injury.
Consent order / consent terms: An order passed by the court recording the agreed terms of the parties. Consent terms are binding once the court passes an order or decree on them and cannot ordinarily be challenged on the merits.
Certified copy: A copy of a judgment, order, or decree certified by the court as a true copy, typically required for filing an appeal, for execution, or as evidence. In many courts, certified copies can now be applied for and received online through the eCourts portal.
Res judicata: The principle under Section 11 of the CPC that a matter that has been finally decided between the same parties by a competent court cannot be litigated again. It is a complete bar to a fresh suit or proceeding on the same cause of action and the same issue.
Limitation: The time period within which a suit, appeal, or application must be filed, prescribed by the Limitation Act 1963. Filing after the prescribed period requires the court to condone the delay on a showing of sufficient cause. Limitation is a jurisdictional issue and courts raise it even if a party does not.

06Case-search and citation terms

These terms are specific to finding, citing, and retrieving case law from databases and court portals.

Citation: The reference that uniquely identifies a published judgment, typically consisting of the year, the report series, and the page or paragraph number. For example, (2024) 5 SCC 100 means volume 5 of the Supreme Court Cases reporter for the year 2024, at page 100. Citations allow you to locate and verify a judgment and are required when citing a case in court.
Neutral citation: A citation assigned by the court itself, independent of any private publisher. Neutral citations in India follow the format Court/Year/Number. For example, 2024 INSC 101 is the 101st judgment of the Supreme Court in 2024. The Supreme Court and several High Courts have adopted neutral citation. It is the safest citation to use because it does not depend on a subscription database.
Reported judgment: A judgment that has been selected, edited, and published by a case reporter (such as SCC, AIR, or Bombay LR). Reported judgments usually carry editorial headnotes and are citation-grade. Not all judgments are reported: most are unreported but are still binding between the parties and may be persuasive authority.
Unreported judgment: A judgment that has not been published in an official reporter. It is available from the court or from databases that collect raw judgments. Unreported judgments can be cited in court but the court will typically require a certified copy to be produced alongside the database printout.
Headnote: A short editorial summary, placed at the top of a published judgment, describing the legal questions decided and the holding. Headnotes are written by the reporter’s editorial team, not the court, and are not part of the ratio decidendi. They are useful for quick scanning but must not be cited as the judgment itself.
Catchword / keyword: Subject-matter tags assigned to a judgment by an editor or, in AI-assisted databases, generated automatically. Catchwords help you find cases on a topic without knowing the exact legal principle in advance.
Ratio decidendi: The reason for the decision: the legal principle on which the court based its ruling. It is the part of the judgment that creates binding precedent. Only the ratio binds; everything else is obiter dictum.
Obiter dictum (obiter): A remark made by the court in passing, not essential to the decision. Obiter can be persuasive but is not binding on other courts. Distinguishing between ratio and obiter is a core skill in Indian legal research.
Per incuriam: A judgment decided "through lack of care", meaning without considering a binding authority that would have changed the outcome. A per incuriam judgment does not bind lower courts. This is a narrow doctrine applied carefully by Indian courts.
Semantic search: A search method that understands the meaning of a query, not just the keywords in it. In the context of Indian case-law databases, a semantic search engine can find judgments on a legal concept even when the exact words in the query do not appear in the judgment.
CNR number (Case Number Record): A unique, standardised identification number assigned to each case filed in a district or subordinate court under the eCourts platform. It is 16 characters long and allows you to search for any case across the eCourts portal regardless of which court it is filed in.
eCourts: The National eGoverness Project for the District Courts of India, under which the eCourts portal (ecourts.gov.in) provides online access to case status, cause lists, orders, and judgments for district and subordinate courts across India.
SCC / AIR / SCR: Common abbreviations for major Indian law reporters. SCC is Supreme Court Cases (Eastern Book Company). AIR is All India Reporter. SCR is the Supreme Court Reports (official). Each has its own citation format. For the High Courts, reporters such as Bom LR, Cal LJ, Mad LJ, and Del LT are similarly abbreviated.
Coram: Latin for "before". It identifies the judges before whom a case was heard. For example, "Coram: Chandrachud CJ and Khanna J" means the judgment was delivered by that bench. Important when checking whether a judgment was by a full bench, division bench, or single bench, which affects its binding weight.

Tip on verifying citations

Before citing a case in court, verify the citation against an official source or a database that provides court-sourced judgments. A citation that does not match the original judgment can result in the court questioning your research, or worse, opposing counsel pointing out the discrepancy.

07Miscellaneous terms you will see often

A few more terms that appear regularly across hearings, orders, and filings.

Lok Adalat: A forum under the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 that settles disputes by conciliation and compromise. An award passed by a Lok Adalat is final and binding, treated as a decree of a civil court, and is not appealable. It is a fast, cost-free alternative to litigation for matters that have already reached the courts or even pre-litigation disputes.
Mediation: A voluntary, confidential dispute-resolution process in which a neutral mediator helps parties reach a settlement. Indian courts increasingly refer cases to mediation before or during litigation. A settlement agreement reached in mediation can be filed and confirmed as a court order.
Execution petition: A petition filed to enforce a decree or order. Even after obtaining a decree, the winning party must file a separate execution petition (or application) to compel the judgment-debtor to comply. Execution proceedings can be complex and are governed by Order XXI of the CPC.
Condonation of delay: An application to the court to excuse a delay in filing a suit, appeal, or application beyond the limitation period, on a showing of "sufficient cause". The court has discretion to condone the delay, and the standards applied vary between courts and categories of delay.
Caveat emptor: Latin for "let the buyer beware". In a legal research context this phrase is a reminder that published summaries, headnotes, and AI-generated answers about case law are starting points, not substitutes for reading the original judgment and verifying the citation.
High Court bench (Division Bench / Full Bench / Single Bench): A Single Bench is one judge. A Division Bench is two judges. A Full Bench is three or more judges of the High Court, convened to settle conflicting decisions of Division Benches or to decide a question of law of importance. A Full Bench or Larger Bench decision overrides a Division Bench decision on the same point.
Peshgi / advance cost: A sum deposited by a party with the court or the court officer to cover anticipated process fees, service charges, or other costs, often required before summons will be issued or processes served. The term is common in trial courts across several states.
Vakalatnama (revisited): Worth noting again here: a vakalatnama authorises one specific advocate or a firm. If you change your advocate, a fresh vakalatnama must be filed. The old advocate’s vakalatnama must be specifically withdrawn or the court will continue to treat the earlier advocate as on record.

For a deeper look at how litigation management and case management differ as organisational practices, see litigation management vs case management. For the difference between case-law search and legal research more broadly, see litigation search vs legal research.

08Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

For a legal professional trying to reduce the friction that comes from not knowing these terms, two things help most: a reliable case-law search tool that returns verified, court-ready citations (so you are not guessing at citation formats), and a case management system that surfaces cause lists, order dates, and compliance deadlines automatically (so you are not caught out by an adjourned matter you missed).

If you want to see how the main Indian case-law search tools compare on coverage, citation quality, and cost, the best case search tools in India 2026 guide walks through that comparison.

09Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a judgment and a decree in Indian courts?

A judgment is the court’s statement of reasons and conclusions. A decree is the formal enforcement document that follows the judgment in a civil suit and is what you execute to recover money or possession. Not every proceeding results in a decree: appeal courts, writ courts, and most tribunal orders are judgments or orders only.

What is a neutral citation and why does it matter?

A neutral citation is assigned by the court itself, for example 2024 INSC 101, independent of any private publisher or reporter. It matters because it is permanent, freely verifiable, and not tied to a subscription. The Supreme Court and several High Courts now issue neutral citations. Using a neutral citation reduces the risk of a disputed or unverifiable reference.

What is the difference between ratio decidendi and obiter dictum?

The ratio decidendi is the legal reason on which the court decided the case. It is binding precedent. Obiter dictum is anything else the court said in passing that was not necessary to the decision. Obiter can be persuasive but does not bind. Identifying which is which is one of the core skills in Indian legal research.

How long is a caveat valid in India and what does it do?

A caveat under Section 148A CPC is valid for 90 days from the date of filing. It requires the court to serve notice on the caveator before passing any ex parte order against them. If the 90 days expire and no notice has been given, the caveat lapses and must be re-filed.

What is a CNR number and how do you use it?

A CNR number (Case Number Record) is the unique 16-character identifier assigned to each case in the district and subordinate court system under the eCourts platform. You can enter it on the eCourts portal (ecourts.gov.in) to pull up the current case status, orders, and cause list entries for that case, regardless of which court within the eCourts network it is filed in.

What is an SLP and when would you file one?

An SLP (Special Leave Petition) is a petition to the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution seeking permission to appeal against any judgment or order of any court or tribunal in India. It is a discretionary remedy: the Supreme Court can refuse leave without giving reasons. You file an SLP when no other appellate route exists or when the case raises a substantial question of general importance.