How-To · Apex Court Remedies · Last verified October 2026

How to File a Transfer Petition in the Supreme Court (2026)

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Sometimes the problem is not the case but the place. A spouse may be unable to travel across the country to defend a matrimonial case, a witness may be at risk in the district where a trial is listed, or related cases may be running in two different states. For these situations the Supreme Court can order that a case be moved from a court in one state to a court in another. The request is made through a transfer petition. This guide explains the power the Supreme Court uses, the grounds that actually persuade a court, the difference between moving a case across states and within a state, and how a transfer petition is filed. It is general information, not legal advice. Last verified October 2026.

01What a transfer petition is

A transfer petition asks a court to move a case from the court where it is pending to a different court. The reason is almost always practical fairness: the current court is so inconvenient, or so unsuitable, that justice is better served by hearing the matter somewhere else.

Which court you ask depends on how far the case has to move. To move a case from one state to another, you go to the Supreme Court of India. To move a case from one court to another within the same state, you go to the High Court of that state. The guiding idea at every level is the same: a transfer is ordered where it is expedient for the ends of justice.

02The civil power: Section 25 CPC

For civil cases, the Supreme Court's power comes from Section 25 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It allows the Supreme Court, at any stage, to transfer a suit, appeal or other proceeding from a High Court or other civil court in one state to a High Court or other civil court in another state, if it is satisfied that the transfer is expedient for the ends of justice.

This is the provision behind the large number of matrimonial transfer petitions, where one spouse (very often the wife) asks for a divorce or maintenance case to be moved closer to where she lives, because travelling repeatedly to a distant court is a genuine hardship. Section 25 also lets the Court impose costs if it finds the petition frivolous or vexatious, so a transfer petition should rest on a real difficulty, not a tactical one.

03Criminal transfers across states

Criminal cases have their own route. The power to transfer a criminal case or appeal from a court in one state to a court in another state lies with the Supreme Court under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), the new code that has replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

The test is again whether the transfer serves the ends of justice, for example where a fair trial is not possible in the local atmosphere, or where the safety of the accused, the victim or witnesses is at genuine risk. A High Court also has power under the BNSS to transfer criminal cases between courts within its own state. Confirm the current section that applies to your facts, as the BNSS has renumbered the provisions of the old code.

04Transfers within a state: Section 24 CPC

Not every transfer needs the Supreme Court. If the case only has to move to another court in the same state, the power is with the High Court or the District Court under Section 24 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Under Section 24, these courts can transfer or withdraw any suit, appeal or proceeding and send it to another competent court within their jurisdiction.

So before you file in the Supreme Court, check whether the court you want to move to is in the same state. If it is, Section 24 before the High Court is the right and much faster route, and the Supreme Court is not needed. The Supreme Court under Section 25 is for moving a case across the boundary of a state.

05Grounds that work

A transfer is a discretion, and courts do not grant it lightly, because the party who chose the forum has a right to be heard there unless there is a real reason to move. Grounds that courts have accepted include:

• Genuine hardship in travelling, such as a spouse with a small child or no independent means having to attend a distant court repeatedly.
• Risk to a fair trial, where the local atmosphere is surcharged or a party is influential in that district.
• Safety of the accused, the victim or witnesses.
• Avoiding conflicting decisions, where connected cases between the same parties are pending in different states.

Mere convenience of counsel, or a belief that another court will be more sympathetic, is not enough.

A transfer petition succeeds on real hardship or a real risk to a fair trial, not on a party's preference for a friendlier forum.

06How to file, step by step

For a civil transfer petition in the Supreme Court under Section 25, the broad steps are:

• Draft the transfer petition naming the case to be transferred, the court where it is pending, and the court you want it moved to, with the grounds.
• Support it with an affidavit setting out the facts of the hardship or risk, with proof such as distance, income, or threats.
• File it in the Supreme Court with the court fee and the required copies, following the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, often through an advocate on record.
• Serve notice on the respondent, who can oppose the transfer, and the Court may stay the proceedings in the lower court in the meantime.
• Attend the hearing. The Court weighs the hardship against the respondent's right to the chosen forum and decides.

Confirm the current forms, fee and filing practice on the Supreme Court portal before filing.

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.

Drafting and arguing a transfer petition is your advocate's job, and Claw does not file it. Where Claw helps is in keeping sight of a case that may be running in more than one place and in researching how transfers have been decided. You can track the matter and any connected proceeding through every stage across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with hearing and order alerts, which is especially useful when related cases are pending in different states and you need to know what each is doing. Its Legal GPT lets you research across 30 crore+ judgments, with Supreme Court decisions from 1950 and High Court decisions from 1990, to find how courts have treated hardship, fair-trial risk and connected-case grounds for transfer. Results return in under 5 seconds, and Claw does not train its AI models on your documents. To find whether a party has matters pending in another state, you can run a case search across Indian courts by name. A clean result means nothing was found on the forums and date searched, under the names used, not that no matter exists. This is general information, not legal advice.

08Sources and further reading

• Supreme Court of India (e-filing and case status): main.sci.gov.in
• India Code (CPC, 1908; BNSS, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• Supreme Court Rules, 2013: sci.gov.in/rules
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This guide is general information, not legal advice. The right court and the grounds depend on your facts; confirm the current position and take advice before filing.

09Frequently asked questions