NJDG vs eCourts: What Is the Difference?
NJDG and eCourts are both official Indian court websites, but they do different jobs. Here is what each one is for, and which one to use when.
Explainer · Court Data Portals
If you have ever tried to check a court case online in India, you have probably landed on two different government websites that seem to do similar things: eCourts and NJDG. They look related, they share data, and their web addresses even overlap, so it is easy to end up on the wrong one and get confused. This explainer sets out, in plain terms, what NJDG is, what eCourts is, and which one to open depending on what you actually need to find.
- eCourts Services: for looking up the status of one case, by CNR, case number, or party name.
- NJDG: a national dashboard for pendency and disposal statistics across courts, not a single-case lookup tool.
- Same data, different purpose: both draw on the same eCourts case management system, just presented differently.
- Rule of thumb: "what is happening in my case" means eCourts. "How big is the backlog" means NJDG.
01Why people mix up NJDG and eCourts
NJDG and eCourts are both run by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, both live under the same broader digitisation programme, and NJDG is even reached through a web address that starts with njdg.ecourts.gov.in. So it is completely understandable that lawyers, litigants, and even court staff sometimes use the two names as if they mean the same thing.
They answer different questions
The confusion usually shows up at a very practical moment: someone wants to know "what is happening in my case" and opens NJDG expecting a case-by-case answer, or they want to know "how bad is the pendency in this court" and open the eCourts case-status page expecting a summary. Neither works well for the other person’s question, because the two portals were built for different jobs.
One is built for a single case, the other for the whole system
eCourts Services is built around a single case: you search for one matter, using a CNR number, a case number, or a party name, and you get that case’s filing details, hearing history, and orders. NJDG is built around the whole system: it is a statistical dashboard that shows how many cases are pending or disposed, broken down by court, state, case type, and age, so that judges, registries, and policymakers can see where backlogs are building up.
The short version
eCourts Services is for looking up one case. NJDG is for looking at pendency and disposal numbers across many cases. They share the same underlying court data, but they present it for two different purposes.
02What the eCourts portal is
eCourts Services (at services.ecourts.gov.in) is the public-facing search tool for individual case records from India’s district and taluka courts, and it also links out to separate High Court and Supreme Court case-status systems. It is the portal most lawyers and litigants actually use day to day.
On eCourts Services you can typically search a case by:
- CNR number: the unique 16-character Case Number Record assigned to a case, which is usually the fastest and most reliable way to pull up the exact record.
- Case number: the registration or filing number, combined with the court and year.
- Party name or advocate name: useful when you do not have the case or CNR number on hand.
- FIR number, in some criminal-case searches.
Once you find the case, eCourts Services shows filing details, the parties and advocates on record, the next hearing date, and a chronological list of past hearings and orders, with several orders available to view or download. This makes it the right tool when the question is "what is the current status of this one case", which is most of what practising lawyers and their clients need on a daily basis. For more on the mechanics of tracking a single matter, see can NJDG track my court case.
03What NJDG is
The National Judicial Data Grid, or NJDG, is a national database and dashboard that aggregates case data from connected courts across India, primarily to monitor pendency and disposal rather than to serve as a lookup tool for a single matter. It was created as part of the eCourts Mission Mode Project and draws on the same case management system that feeds eCourts Services, which is why the two portals overlap so much in address and in underlying data.
NJDG is mainly used to answer questions such as:
- How many cases are pending in a particular district, state, or court, and for how long?
- How are pending cases split between civil and criminal matters, or by case type?
- Which courts have the oldest backlogs, and how is disposal trending over time?
This makes NJDG a decision-support and monitoring tool for court administrators, High Courts, the Supreme Court, and researchers or policymakers who need the bigger picture of how the justice system is performing, rather than the status of one client’s case. NJDG data for pendency and disposal is published at the national, state, and district level and is updated regularly by the connected courts. A separate HC-NJDG module covers High Court-level pendency specifically. For a fuller walkthrough of NJDG on its own, see what is NJDG.
04NJDG vs eCourts: side-by-side
| eCourts Services | NJDG | |
|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Look up one case | Monitor pendency and disposal across courts |
| Typical user | Lawyers, litigants, court clerks | Court administrators, researchers, policymakers, also lawyers checking a court’s backlog |
| What you search by | CNR number, case number, party name, advocate name | Court, state, district, case type, and time period |
| What you get back | Filing details, hearings, orders, next date for that case | Counts and charts of pending and disposed cases |
| Court levels covered | District and taluka courts, with links to High Court and Supreme Court case status | District, High Court (via HC-NJDG), and Supreme Court |
| Good for | "What is happening in my case?" | "How much backlog does this court have?" |
05Which one should you use
In practice, the choice is simple once you know what question you are actually asking.
Use eCourts Services when you need the status of a specific case: the next hearing date, the latest order, or the history of a matter you or your client is involved in. This is the everyday tool for case tracking.
Use NJDG when you need the bigger picture: how many cases of a certain type are pending in a court, how old the backlog is, or how disposal is trending. Lawyers use this less often day to day, but it is useful when advising a client on likely timelines, or when researching how a particular court or bench is performing.
Both portals draw on the same underlying case data from the National Judicial Data Grid ecosystem, so neither is "more official" than the other. They are simply built for different questions. For a broader look at software that helps with case tracking beyond these two government portals, see the best free legal software in India.
06Where Claw fits
Government portals like eCourts and NJDG are the official source of truth for Indian court data, and that will not change. Where a tool like Claw fits in is on top of that data: instead of a lawyer or firm having to check eCourts Services case by case, across dozens of matters and courts, an automated system can track each case and surface updates as they happen.
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. On the case-tracking side specifically, Claw follows cases across 8,200-plus courts, including all states, tribunals, district courts, and the Supreme Court, pulls in auto case updates and cause lists, and sends alerts over WhatsApp and email so a firm does not have to keep opening eCourts Services one matter at a time. It also reads court orders to help schedule reminders automatically. None of this replaces eCourts or NJDG as the official record. It simply saves the manual work of checking them repeatedly across a full caseload.
07Sources and further reading
Official sources for this explainer:
- eCourts Services (case status search): services.ecourts.gov.in
- eCourts single sign-on homepage: ecourts.gov.in
- NJDG (National Judicial Data Grid): njdg.ecourts.gov.in
- National Informatics Centre, on the NJDG project: nic.gov.in
- e-Committee, Supreme Court of India, on NJDG: ecommitteesci.gov.in
- Claw: clawlaw.in
Case counts and pendency figures on NJDG change daily as courts update their records, so treat any specific number as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.
08Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between NJDG and eCourts?
eCourts Services is for looking up a single case, using its CNR number, case number, or party name, to see its status, hearings, and orders. NJDG is a national dashboard that shows pendency and disposal statistics across courts, states, and case types. eCourts answers "what is happening in my case", while NJDG answers "how much backlog does this court have".
Can I check my case status on NJDG?
NJDG is built mainly as a statistical monitoring tool, not a single-case search tool, so it is not the right place to check one case’s status. For that, use eCourts Services with the CNR number or case number. See our explainer on whether NJDG can track your court case for more detail.
Are NJDG and eCourts run by the same authority?
Yes. Both are part of the e-Courts Mission Mode Project run under the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, and NJDG draws on the same case management data that feeds eCourts Services, which is why the two portals overlap in address and in data.
Which courts does NJDG cover?
NJDG covers district and taluka courts, with a separate HC-NJDG module for High Court pendency, and Supreme Court data as well. Coverage and update frequency can vary slightly by court, since data is fed in by each connected court.
Do I need to use both eCourts and NJDG as a lawyer?
Most day-to-day work only needs eCourts Services, since that is where you check hearing dates, orders, and case status. NJDG is more useful occasionally, for example when estimating how long a case might take in a particular court based on its backlog, or for research and reporting purposes.
Is there a faster way to track many cases than checking eCourts one by one?
Yes. Government portals remain the official record, but for firms tracking many matters across courts, tools built for case tracking can pull updates automatically instead of checking eCourts case by case. See the best free legal software in India for options.