Computers and the Internet in Legal Work: Finding the Law

In one line

The skill is not searching. The skill is knowing which of the results is the law, and whether the copy in front of you is the current one.

In exam wording: the professional use of computers and the internet in legal work consists in the identification of authoritative primary sources, the verification that a statutory text is the amended and commenced text, and the confirmation that a judgment relied on has not been overruled or stayed.

The hierarchy of sources

Learn this before any website, because it decides what a search result is worth.

Primary sources. The law itself: the bare Act as published by the Government, the Gazette notification, the rules, and the judgment as delivered. These are the only things you may cite as the law.

Secondary sources. Commentary about the law: textbooks, journal articles, Law Commission reports, case digests, headnotes. They help you understand and they help you find. A headnote is a secondary source, which is why chapter 710 says never to argue with one.

Neither. Blog posts, exam guides, coaching notes, summary websites, question banks, and the output of a language model. These may point you to a source. They are not one, and a citation to them in a court, a journal or an answer script is worth nothing.

The rule that follows: a search finds a pointer; the citation must be to what the pointer points at. Every one of the failures below is a version of somebody skipping that step.

The free official sources, in order of usefulness

Each of these was used to build this book, and each was checked as working on the date this chapter was written.

India Code, indiacode.gov.in. The Government's repository of central Acts, in consolidated form with amendment footnotes. This is where a bare Act should come from.

The Supreme Court of India, sci.gov.in. Judgments, cause lists, case status and the Court's own rules.

eCourts judgment search, judgments.ecourts.gov.in, and the eCourts services portal at services.ecourts.gov.in. District and High Court judgments and case status.

The National Judicial Data Grid, njdg.ecourts.gov.in. Pendency statistics by court, useful when a petition or an article needs a figure about delay.

The e-Gazette, egazette.gov.in. Where a commencement notification actually lives. This is the source of last resort for whether a section is in force, and chapter 620 exists because of it.

Ministry and department sites, such as the Department of Justice at doj.gov.in and the Legislative Department at legislative.gov.in, for policy documents, parliamentary answers and draft legislation.

NALSA, nalsa.gov.in, for the regulations and schemes behind Module I of this book.

PRS Legislative Research, prsindia.org. Not official, but it tracks Bills through Parliament and is the fastest way to see the legislative history of an Act.