Case Search at the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)
How to check case status at the Central Administrative Tribunal, why it is harder than a normal court search, and what to do once you are tracking matters across more than one bench.
Jurisdiction Guide · Central Administrative Tribunal
The Central Administrative Tribunal decides service matters for central government employees, and for the people involved, an Original Application is rarely a one-off filing, it runs for months with hearings, orders, and adjournments along the way. Checking where that matter stands means going to the right CAT bench, using the right case number, and reading the order that came out of the last hearing, and none of that is a single, unified search the way it can feel with a High Court case. This page explains how CAT case status search actually works today, why it gets harder once you have matters at more than one bench, and where a tracking tool like Claw fits in.
- Where to check: the official CAT case status page, bench-wise, at cis.cgat.gov.in.
- Two numbers, not one: a new filing has a diary number first, then an OA (or TA/MA) number once registered.
- The real difficulty: tracking matters across more than one CAT bench, each with its own cause list.
- Where Claw fits: pulling CAT and other court and tribunal matters into one tracking dashboard with alerts.
01Why CAT case tracking is different from a court case
The Central Administrative Tribunal was set up in 1985 to hear service disputes, mainly Original Applications (OAs) filed by central government employees over recruitment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary action, and similar service matters. It sits below the High Courts in the sense that its orders can be challenged there, but it functions as a specialised tribunal with its own registry, its own case numbering, and its own bench structure.
It is not one bench, it is many
CAT has a Principal Bench in Delhi and a set of regional benches in other cities. Each bench maintains its own case status system, its own cause list, and often its own registry contact numbers. A government employee or a department with matters pending in more than one city is, in effect, tracking several separate systems rather than one.
Diary number and OA number are not the same thing
When an application is first filed, it gets a temporary diary number. Only after the registry processes and registers it does it receive a permanent OA (or MA or TA) number for the case type. A matter filed recently may only be traceable by its diary number for a while, and searching by the OA number too early will show nothing. This distinction trips up a lot of people who assume the case has simply gone missing.
A different but related question
This page is about tracking status at CAT specifically. For a wider look at how case search and case tracking work across the High Courts, district courts, and tribunals together, see case search across Indian courts.
02How CAT case status search works today
CAT case status is checked through its official case information system, reached from cis.cgat.gov.in. The search is bench-specific: you first pick the bench (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and so on) before any result will show.
From there, the portal offers a few ways to search:
- By case number: select the case type, usually OA (Original Application), TA (Transfer Application), or MA (Miscellaneous Application), then enter the number and year.
- By diary number: useful for a matter that was filed recently and has not yet been allotted a permanent case number.
- By party name: search as petitioner, respondent, or both.
- By advocate name: useful when a lawyer wants to see every matter they are handling at a given bench.
Filing itself happens through a separate e-filing portal. Judgments and orders are published on a dedicated CAT judgements archive, which is useful for research but is a different tool from the case status page. None of these systems talk to each other automatically, so a person tracking a matter is expected to know which tool answers which question, and to check the right bench’s page directly.
03What makes this hard in practice
On paper, checking a CAT case is a five-minute task. In practice, three things make it slower for anyone handling more than one matter.
Multiple benches mean multiple manual checks. A public sector employer, an association, or a law firm with OAs pending in Delhi, Chennai, and Ahmedabad has to visit three different bench pages, remember three different logins or search formats, and repeat the exercise every time there is a hearing.
Cause lists are published per bench, per day. Knowing that a matter is listed tomorrow, and not finding out after the date has passed, means checking the right bench’s cause list regularly rather than relying on one master calendar. See how to manage cause lists across multiple courts in India for the wider version of this problem.
Orders carry deadlines that are easy to miss. A CAT order can set a compliance date, for example a direction to implement a promotion or complete a review within a fixed period. If nobody is tracking that date against a calendar, the deadline can pass unnoticed. This is a general risk across Indian tribunals and courts, and it is worth building a habit around it. See how to get notified when your case is listed for practical options.
At CAT, the case status page can tell you what happened at the last hearing. It cannot tell you, on its own, that a matter is coming up next week at a different bench.
None of this is unique to CAT. The Debt Recovery Tribunals and Appellate Tribunals face a similar structure, bench-wise systems and scattered cause lists, and the same discipline applies there. See DRT and DRAT case tracking software for how that comparable problem is handled.
04Where 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 CAT specifically, the useful part of Claw is not case law search, it is case tracking. Claw’s tracking coverage spans 8,200-plus courts across India, including tribunals, district courts, and every state, so a matter pending at CAT can sit in the same dashboard as a High Court appeal or a district court matter, instead of a separate bench-by-bench check. In practice that means automatic case status updates, a single calendar view of cause lists across benches and courts, and WhatsApp and email alerts when a matter is listed, which removes the manual habit of visiting each bench’s page in turn. Claw also reads court orders and can flag compliance dates automatically, which matters for CAT orders that set a deadline for implementation. For a government department or a firm juggling matters at several benches at once, that consolidation is the main practical benefit.
05Sources and further reading
Official sources for CAT case information, linked directly:
- CAT case status (bench-wise): cis.cgat.gov.in
- CAT judgements archive: catjudgements.nic.in
- CAT e-filing portal: efiling.cgat.gov.in
- Claw: clawlaw.in
Bench addresses and contact details change from time to time, so confirm the current list on the official CAT site before relying on it.
06Frequently asked questions
How do I check my case status at the Central Administrative Tribunal?
Go to the official CAT case status page, select the bench where your matter is filed (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and so on), then search by case number (OA, TA, or MA) and year, or by diary number, party name, or advocate name. The search is bench-specific, so you must select the correct bench first.
What is the difference between a diary number and an OA number at CAT?
A diary number is issued immediately when an application is filed, before the registry has processed it. An OA number (Original Application number) is the permanent case number allotted once the matter is registered. A recently filed case may only show up under its diary number for some time.
Why is my recently filed CAT case not showing up in the search?
It is most likely still under registration and only traceable by its diary number. If it still does not appear after about two weeks, the practical step is to contact the registry of the bench where it was filed directly.
Does CAT have one national case status system or separate ones per bench?
The search is organised by bench. Each CAT bench, the Principal Bench in Delhi and the regional benches, maintains its own case records and cause lists, so tracking matters across more than one bench means checking each bench separately unless you use a tool that consolidates them.
How is tracking a CAT case different from tracking a High Court case?
CAT is a specialised tribunal for central government service matters, with its own bench-wise registry and numbering (OA, TA, MA) instead of a single unified court system. The underlying challenge, staying on top of hearing dates and orders, is similar to tracking any Indian court matter, which is covered more broadly in our guide to case search across Indian courts.
Can Claw track my CAT case alongside my other court matters?
Claw is built for case tracking across a wide range of Indian courts and tribunals, with automatic status updates, cause lists, and WhatsApp and email alerts in one place. This is useful when a person or firm has matters at CAT as well as at High Courts or district courts and does not want to check each system separately.