The Digest, the Citator and Tracing a Case
Chapter -One
Syllabus topic 5, "Research Methods"
Pages 368 to 370 of 543
In one line
Finding a case is easy and finding out whether it is still good law is the whole job, because a proposition supported by an overruled decision is worse than no proposition at all.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: a digest is a subject-wise arrangement of case law which enables a researcher to find the decisions on a point, while a citator is a tool which lists the later cases in which a given decision has been cited and records how it was treated, whether followed, applied, distinguished, doubted, dissented from or overruled; tracing a case means establishing, before it is relied on, that it has not been overruled or superseded and that the proposition for which it is cited is its ratio.
The two tools
The digest answers: what cases exist on this point? It arranges decisions by subject with short statements of what each held, so a researcher can find the line of authority without knowing any case's name.
The citator answers: what has happened to this case since? It lists later decisions citing it and records the treatment.
The vocabulary of treatment, which a student must know.
Followed or applied: a later court accepted and used it.
Distinguished: a later court held it inapplicable because the facts differed materially. The case survives but its reach is narrowed.
Doubted: a later court questioned it without deciding against it.
Dissented from or not followed: a coordinate court declined to follow it, which creates a conflict.
Overruled: a court competent to do so held it wrongly decided. It is no longer law.
Reversed is different and is often confused: it means the same case was decided the other way on appeal.
The four checks before relying on a case
One: is this the right case? Names repeat, and a party may litigate several times. This book's own experience is the warning: searching for the case commonly cited as Hussainara Khatoon returns several judgments on the same petition, decided on different dates and reported at different pages, and the free legal services holding is only in one of them, chapter 630.
Two: is it still good law? The citator check. A decision may have been overruled decades later.
Three: what did it actually hold? Read the judgment for its ratio, not the headnote. Chapter 240.
Four: does it support this proposition? A case is authority for the point it decided, and a sentence in it that suits the researcher is not.
Doing it without a subscription
Because most Indian law students have no citator, and this is the practical half of the chapter.
Search for the case name in later judgments. Free full text databases are searchable, so searching the case name returns the decisions that cite it, and reading the most recent few will usually reveal whether it is still relied on.
The Digest, the Citator and Tracing a Case
Search for the case name together with words of doubt, such as overruled, no longer good law, or per incuriam.
Check the bench strength. A decision can only be overruled by a bench of at least equal strength, so a Constitution Bench decision cannot be displaced by two judges.
Read the latest decision on the point rather than the most famous, because the latest will usually summarise the line.
And check whether the statute has changed under it. A case interpreting a section that has since been amended may be correct about a provision that no longer exists, which is a way of ceasing to be authority without ever being overruled.
A worked example, which this book itself provides
The proposition. The Bar Council of India may require a law graduate to pass an examination before practising.
The famous case is V. Sudeer v. Bar Council of India, (1999) 3 SCC 176, decided on 15 March 1999, which struck the Bar Council's training rules down as beyond its rule making power.
A researcher who stopped there would state the law exactly backwards.
The check. Searching the case name in later material returns Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 130, decided on 10 February 2023, in which a Constitution Bench held V. Sudeer to be not good law and set it aside prospectively, upholding the All India Bar Examination and leaving its timing to the Council. Chapter 420.
Three features of that check are worth naming. The overruling came twenty-four years later, so age is no protection. It came from a larger bench, which is why it could. And it was prospective, so the position before it was not retrospectively altered, which matters for anything decided in the interval.
What a researcher writes down
The full citation, including the date, because this book's own case bank records that the conventional roman numerals for Hussainara Khatoon and Khatri are unreliable and identifies every case by date and report instead.
The court and the bench strength.
The facts, the holding and why it matters. This book's cases.json requires all three of every entry, and a bare citation is worth nothing, which is a rule this book applies to itself.
And the check. That the case was read in full text, where, and when.
A discipline worth copying. This book keeps a queue of five cases that could not be located or read, each marked NOT READ, and none of them is cited anywhere in it. A student who keeps the same list will never accidentally rely on a case they have only heard of.
The Digest, the Citator and Tracing a Case
Quick revision
A digest finds the cases on a point by subject. A citator records how a case has been treated since.
Treatment vocabulary: followed or applied; distinguished, so it survives but narrowed; doubted; dissented from, creating a conflict; overruled, so it is no longer law; and reversed, which is the same case decided the other way on appeal.
Four checks: is this the right case; is it still good law; what did it actually hold; and does it support this proposition.
Without a subscription: search the case name in later judgments; search it with words of doubt; check bench strength, since only an equal or larger bench can overrule; read the latest decision on the point; and check whether the statute has been amended under it.
The worked example: V. Sudeer, (1999) 3 SCC 176 was set aside by a Constitution Bench in Bonnie Foi, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 130, twenty-four years later and prospectively.
Test yourself
1. Distinguish a digest from a citator. A digest arranges case law by subject with short statements of what each case held, so that a researcher can find the decisions on a point. A citator lists the later cases in which a given decision has been cited and records how it was treated.
2. Explain the difference between distinguished, overruled and reversed. Distinguished means a later court held the case inapplicable because the facts differed materially, so it survives with a narrower reach. Overruled means a court competent to do so held it wrongly decided, so it is no longer law. Reversed means the same case was decided the other way on appeal.
3. Give four ways to check whether a case is still good law without a subscription citator. Search the case name in later judgments in a free full text database and read the most recent that cite it; search the name together with words such as overruled or no longer good law; check bench strength, since only a bench of at least equal strength can overrule; and check whether the statute the case interpreted has since been amended.
4. Use one example to show why the check matters. V. Sudeer v. Bar Council of India, (1999) 3 SCC 176, struck down the Bar Council's pre-enrolment training rules, and a researcher stopping there would state the law backwards. A Constitution Bench in Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 130, held V. Sudeer to be no longer good law and upheld the All India Bar Examination, twenty-four years later.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.