india
Information about Indian court cases available online
<p>Based on my experience searching for information about Indian court cases online, the only information that is available online for a case is the Court Judgment. This is the document authored by a judge (or judges) giving their decision on a case.</p>
<p>However, this information is by definition incomplete. I would like as complete a description of the case as possible, in particular including the submissions from the plaintiff/petitioner, as well as responses etc. The judgment by itself just includes whatever the judges feel like mentioning from the case documentation, and it's wholly inadequate as documentation of a case. If the other information is not recorded in an accessible form, that would be most unfortunate.</p>
<p>So, I was wondering whether this information was available online, possibly as a paid service. If not, why not? While this seems like a obvious and simple question, I've not found any clear statement of this anywhere. However, given that I have failed to find it so far, it at least seems that this information, even if available somewhere, is not very accessible.</p>

<h2>The judgement is the definitive record</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A1917-05.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Destruction of Records Act</em></a> 1917 allow the high court to set <a href="https://highcourtchd.gov.in/sub_pages/left_menu/Rules_orders/high_court_rules/Vol-V--PDF/chap5partCV5.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">rules</a> on what records are to be kept and for how long. In summary, a very small number, including the judgement are kept indefinitely and the remainder are split into Part A (important stuff) and Part B (less important stuff) and kept for 30 and 6 years respectively.</p>
<p>There is no obligation for these to be publicly available so, generally, they aren’t. They are usually publicly <em>accessible</em> by going to the register of the relevant court and asking to see them which may involve payment of an administrative fee. Some records are, however, classified or confidential depending on the nature of the case (e.g. national security, cases involving children etc.)</p>
<p>Once a case is completed and all avenues of review have been exhausted, the submissions and evidence are of no value. Only the fact of the case and the reasons in the judgement matter.</p>
