How to File a Case Online in India

Step-by-Step Guide · e-Filing

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

E-filing sounds simple: log in, upload your papers, done. In practice, first-time filers lose hours to registration hold-ups, wrong document formats, and defects flagged after submission that send the case back to square one. This guide walks through exactly what you need before you start, the steps to file a case online in India, and what happens after you hit submit, so you can file once and file right.

01Why online filing trips people up

Filing a case online in India means submitting your plaint, petition, or application through the e-Courts eFiling portal (or, for the Supreme Court, its own e-filing system) instead of physically walking papers to a filing counter. On paper this should save time. In practice, most delays come from three places.

Registration is its own small project

Before you can file anything, you need a verified e-filing account tied to your bar enrolment or party details, along with a working mobile number and email for OTP verification. Miss a mandatory field, or register under the wrong role, and you are stuck redoing it.

Formatting rules are strict and easy to miss

Pleadings and annexures must be uploaded as PDFs, usually within size limits, and often need to be searchable rather than scanned images. A document that opens fine on your computer can still get flagged as non-compliant by the portal.

Scrutiny can send you back to the start

Once you submit, court staff scrutinise the filing before it is registered as a case. If they find a defect, missing court fee, an unsigned vakalatnama, or an incomplete form, the filing is sent back for correction and refiling, which resets your timeline.

02Before you start: what you need

Have these ready before you open the portal, so a missing item does not stall you halfway through a form.

• A verified e-filing account. Advocates register with their bar enrolment number; litigants filing in person register with identity proof (PAN, Aadhaar, voter ID, or similar). Registration needs a working mobile number and email, since both get separate OTPs.
• Case and party details. Names and addresses of all parties, the type of case, the court and bench you are filing before, and (for an existing matter) the case number.
• Your pleadings and annexures as PDFs. Keep files within the portal’s size limit and, where possible, use text-based PDFs rather than scanned images, since some portals reject poor-quality scans at the scrutiny stage.
• Court fee payment method. Most portals support online payment of court fees; some High Courts still require a separate physical or e-stamp process depending on the case type.
• A digital signature or e-Sign setup, since most e-filing systems require the filing to be signed electronically (typically Aadhaar-based e-Sign) before submission.
• A vakalatnama or authorisation, signed and ready to upload, if an advocate is filing on behalf of a party.

Most e-filing delays are not caused by the law. They are caused by a missing OTP, a scanned PDF, or an unsigned vakalatnama.

03How to file a case online, step by step

These steps follow the national e-Courts eFiling portal used for district courts and most High Courts. The Supreme Court runs its own e-filing system on a similar pattern, and a few High Courts run additional portals of their own, so always confirm the correct URL for your court before you begin.

Step 1: Register on the portal

Go to the official e-filing portal for district and High Courts, select your state, and click Register. Choose the correct role (advocate or litigant), fill in the mandatory fields, and verify the OTPs sent to your mobile number and email. Complete the personal details form to activate your account.

Step 2: Log in and start a new case filing

Log in with your user ID and password, then select New Case Filing from the case filing menu. This opens a sequence of forms you fill one after another.

Step 3: Fill the case forms in order

Typically you will complete: Initial Input (basic case type and court details), Litigant (details of all parties), Fact Details (the substance of your case), and Case Details (specific fields the case type requires). Fill each carefully. Errors here are a common cause of defects raised later.

Step 4: Upload your documents

Upload your plaint or petition, supporting annexures, the vakalatnama, and any affidavits as PDFs in the e-File section. Check each file opens correctly and matches the case details you entered.

Step 5: Pay the court fee

Pay the applicable court fee through the portal’s payment gateway where online payment is supported, and keep the payment receipt, since you may need to reference it if the filing is queried.

Step 6: e-Sign and submit

Sign the filing electronically, usually through Aadhaar-based e-Sign, and submit. The portal generates an acknowledgement and a diary number for your filing. This diary number is not yet a registered case number.

04What happens after you submit

Submitting the form is not the end of the process. Your filing still has to clear scrutiny before it becomes a live case.

Scrutiny. Court staff or the filing counter check your submission against procedural requirements: correct court fee, signed vakalatnama, complete forms, and properly formatted documents. This can take anywhere from same-day to a few days depending on the court’s workload.

If there is a defect, the filing is marked with the specific defect and sent back to you for correction. You refile the corrected version against the same diary number rather than starting over from registration.

If the filing clears scrutiny, it is registered and assigned a case number, which becomes searchable and trackable going forward. From this point, the case appears on the court’s cause lists as hearings are scheduled.

Keep your diary number and the acknowledgement safe until the case number is issued. If you need to follow up, the diary number is what the filing counter uses to trace your submission.

05Common mistakes that cause rejection

Most defects fall into a small set of repeat problems: mismatched party names between forms and documents, missing or incorrectly signed vakalatnamas, scanned image PDFs instead of text PDFs, incomplete court fee payment, and case-type fields filled inconsistently with the pleading itself. A single wrong field can send an otherwise sound filing back for correction. For the full list of what to check before you submit, see common e-filing mistakes advocates make.

06Staying on top of the case after filing

Getting a case registered is only the start. Once it is on the docket, you need to track hearing dates, cause list listings, and any court orders that come through, across however many matters you are handling. Many advocates track this manually with a diary or spreadsheet at first, then move to a workflow built around the daily cause list, see the daily cause list workflow for advocates, once the volume of matters grows. If you are evaluating software to manage filed cases end to end, our guide to the best legal case management apps in India compares the main options.

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.

Claw does not replace the government e-filing portal, filing a case still has to happen on the official eFiling system for your court. Where Claw fits in is after the case is registered: once you have a case number, Claw can track it automatically across 8,200+ courts including district courts, High Courts, tribunals, and the Supreme Court, pull it onto a daily cause list, send WhatsApp and email alerts on hearing dates, and use AI to read a court order and schedule the next reminder for you. For advocates filing and tracking many matters at once, that means the e-filing portal handles the submission, and Claw handles the follow-through so nothing slips through after the filing is done.

08Sources and further reading

Official portals referenced in this guide:

• e-Filing (district and High Courts): efiling.ecourts.gov.in
• National e-Courts portal: ecourts.gov.in
• e-Committee, Supreme Court of India: ecommitteesci.gov.in
• Supreme Court e-filing: efiling.sci.gov.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

Portal versions, forms, and exact requirements change over time and can vary by state and court. Always confirm the current process on the official portal for your court before filing.

09Frequently asked questions