Case Search at Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals

Jurisdiction Guide · Labour Courts & Industrial Tribunals

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

A dismissal case at a Labour Court and a wage dispute at an Industrial Tribunal do not work like a civil suit or a writ petition. They start as a conciliation matter, only reach the tribunal if conciliation fails, and can sit in either a central or a state system depending on who the employer is. There is no single national website where you can search all of this. This guide explains how Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals are structured in India, how a matter actually gets there, and how to search for a case once it does, whether it is in the central sphere or a state sphere.

01What Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals handle

Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals are adjudicating bodies set up under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, to resolve disputes between employers and workmen. They are not part of the regular civil court hierarchy, and a matter does not begin there the way a suit begins in a civil court.

Labour Courts, Industrial Tribunals, and National Tribunals

The Act sets up three levels of adjudicating authority, each with a different scope:

• Labour Courts (Section 7) mainly decide matters like the legality of a discharge or dismissal, the legality of a strike or lockout, and disputes over an employer’s order under Standing Orders.
• Industrial Tribunals (Section 7A) decide a wider range of matters, including wages, bonus, retrenchment, closure of an establishment, and working hours, in addition to matters a Labour Court can also hear.
• National Tribunals (Section 7B) are constituted by the Central Government for disputes of national importance, or disputes that affect establishments in more than one state.

A dispute reaches a tribunal by reference, not by filing a suit

An industrial dispute usually starts with conciliation. A Conciliation Officer, typically working under the office of the Labour Commissioner, first tries to settle the dispute between the employer and the workman or union. Only if conciliation fails does the appropriate government pass a formal reference order, sending specific issues to a Labour Court or Industrial Tribunal for adjudication. This is different from a civil suit, where a party files directly with the court.

Central sphere and state sphere

Which government is the "appropriate government" for a dispute depends on the employer. For establishments in the central sphere, such as central public sector undertakings, banks, mines, and major ports, the Central Government is the appropriate government, and the matter goes to a Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court (CGIT-cum-LC). For most other establishments, the concerned State Government is the appropriate government, and each state runs its own network of Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals.

02Why finding a labour case is harder than it looks

Case search at a Labour Court or Industrial Tribunal is a status and reference-tracking job, similar in spirit to district court search, but with extra layers that make it harder in practice.

Two separate systems, no single search

Because disputes split between a central sphere and a state sphere, there is no one national portal that covers both. Central sphere matters sit with the 22 CGIT-cum-Labour Courts under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. State sphere matters sit with each state’s own Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals, and every state runs this differently.

Digitisation is uneven across states

Some states have brought their Industrial and Labour Courts into the eCourts framework, with online case status search that works much like a district court search. Other states publish case status through a separate Labour Department website instead of the standard eCourts system, and a few offer only limited online information. So the first step in any search is working out which system, if any, your state uses.

A matter carries more than one number

Because a dispute usually starts as a conciliation case before it is referred to a tribunal, a single matter can have a conciliation file number with the Labour Commissioner’s office and a separate reference number at the Labour Court or Tribunal. If you only have one of these numbers, you may not be able to trace the full history of the matter.

A labour dispute rarely has one file number. It usually has a conciliation number first, and a separate reference number once it reaches the tribunal. Knowing only one of the two can leave half the history untraceable.

03How to search a state-sphere Labour Court or Tribunal case

For a matter in the state sphere, meaning the employer is not a central government establishment, this is the practical approach.

1. Check whether your state’s Industrial and Labour Courts are integrated with eCourts. Some states run their case status search as a district-court-style portal under the eCourts district courts framework. For example, Maharashtra’s Industrial and Labour Courts run their own case status search, with lookup by case number, case type, or the Act under which the matter was filed, at indus.dcourts.gov.in. Gujarat runs a similar dedicated portal for its Industrial and Labour Courts.
2. If your state is not on that model, check the state Labour Department website. A number of states publish Labour Court and Industrial Tribunal case status through their own Labour Department site rather than through eCourts. The search fields are usually similar: case number, party name, and the relevant Act.
3. If neither turns up your matter, try the general eCourts Services portal at services.ecourts.gov.in and search by district, since Labour and Industrial Courts in some states are listed alongside other district-level courts.
4. If none of the above shows a result, contact the tribunal’s registry or the Labour Commissioner’s office directly. For matters still at the conciliation stage, or in states with limited digitisation, the registry is the only reliable source.

04Searching central-sphere CGIT matters

For central sphere disputes, the relevant forum is a Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, generally referred to as a CGIT-cum-LC. There are 22 CGIT-cum-Labour Courts across India, set up under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and functioning under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The official source for these tribunals is cgit.labour.gov.in, which lists the individual CGIT-cum-LCs, their territorial jurisdiction, and contact details for each bench. Since the amendment made through the Finance Act, 2017, CGITs and National Industrial Tribunals also hear appeals arising under the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, in addition to their original industrial-dispute jurisdiction.

If you are not sure whether your matter is central sphere or state sphere, the nature of the employer is the quickest test. Central public sector undertakings, nationalised banks, major ports, mines, railways, and similar central government establishments are generally central sphere, and the Labour Ministry publishes the jurisdiction breakdown by CGIT bench. Everything else defaults to the relevant state government’s Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals.

05Case and reference numbers, explained

Understanding what number you are actually holding makes the search far more reliable.

Conciliation file number

When a dispute is first raised, whether by a workman, a union, or an employer, it is usually registered as a conciliation case with the Labour Commissioner’s office, and given a file number in that office’s own format. This number is local to the conciliation office and is not used once the matter moves to a tribunal.

Reference or ID number at the tribunal

Once conciliation fails and the appropriate government refers the dispute, the Labour Court or Industrial Tribunal registers it under its own number, commonly written in a form such as "Reference (IT) No. X of YYYY" or "ID No. X of YYYY", though the exact format varies by state and by tribunal. This number, not the conciliation file number, is what a tribunal’s own case status search expects.

No CNR, and no single national numbering

Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals do not use the 16-character CNR numbering that applies to district and High Courts under eCourts. If a labour dispute is later challenged by way of a writ petition before a High Court, that petition gets its own, entirely separate case number and CNR at the High Court, with no automatic link back to the tribunal’s reference number. For how e-filing works if a matter reaches that stage, see how to e-file a case in Indian High Courts.

06Common problems and workarounds

A few problems come up repeatedly for anyone trying to search a labour matter.

You do not know if the matter is central or state sphere

Start with the nature of the employer. If it is a central government undertaking, bank, or similar central establishment, check the CGIT jurisdiction list. Otherwise, check the state Labour Department or the state’s Industrial and Labour Court portal, where one exists.

You only have the conciliation number, not the reference number

The conciliation office that handled the matter is the right place to ask whether, and when, it was referred to a tribunal, and under what reference number. Without that reference number, a tribunal-level portal search will usually return nothing.

Your state has no online search for Labour Courts

Not every state has digitised its Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals to the same extent as its regular district courts. Where no online search exists, the registry of the specific court, or the office of the Labour Commissioner, remains the only reliable source for status and cause lists.

You are tracking many labour matters, not just one

Employers with operations across several states can have labour disputes open in multiple state systems and, where applicable, with a CGIT bench, at the same time. Manually checking each portal for each matter does not scale well, and a missed hearing date in this category can result in an award being passed without you. For the broader picture of tracking litigation across every kind of Indian court and tribunal, see case search across Indian courts and how to track cases across all Indian courts.

07Where 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.

It is worth being precise about Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals specifically. Claw’s AI-based case search product, built for citation-grade legal research, covers the Supreme Court and all 25 High Courts. It is not built as a search engine for tribunal reference numbers or conciliation files, which sit outside that coverage entirely.

Where Claw is useful for labour and industrial matters is on the tracking side. Its case management module covers 8,200 plus courts and tribunals across India, and once a matter is added, whether it is a state-sphere Industrial Tribunal reference or a central-sphere CGIT matter, it pulls status updates, keeps a shared calendar and cause list, and sends hearing reminders over WhatsApp and email to both in-house and outside counsel. Its AI auto-compliance feature can also read an uploaded order or award and schedule the next compliance step, which matters given how unforgiving labour law timelines are. For employers or firms handling a spread of labour disputes across states, that is a more practical starting point than checking each tribunal portal by hand; see the full guide to labour and employment litigation software for how the options compare.

08Frequently asked questions