In short. Finding out where your commercial case stands takes a couple of minutes online, once you know which site to open. For a suit in a Delhi district commercial court, it's eCourts (website or app), searching by CNR number, case number or party name. For a suit or appeal in the Delhi High Court, it's the High Court's own case status pages. Either will show you the next date, the stage and the orders passed. Below we show where to click, how to read what comes up, and what to do when the status looks wrong.
Is this your situation?
- It's the night before what you think is your hearing, and you'd rather not ring your lawyer at 10 pm just to confirm the date.
- You've got a case number scribbled on the back of an envelope, or a CNR on an old order, and no idea which website takes it.
- Someone told you the matter is 'in the High Court now'. You've searched and can't find it anywhere.
- You want to read the last order yourself, not hear a one-line version of it over the phone.
- A courier brought summons, or a customer mentioned a case, and you want to see what's been filed against your company.
- Your case is in Noida, Ghaziabad or Gurugram, and you aren't sure the Delhi sites will show it at all.
Where can you check commercial case status online in Delhi?
There are two places. Which one you need depends on the court. If your suit is in a Delhi district court, meaning before a District Judge (Commercial Court) at Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka or Patiala House, you use the national eCourts services system. That's the website at services.ecourts.gov.in, or the eCourts Services app on your phone. If the suit is in the Delhi High Court's Commercial Division, or your appeal is before its Commercial Appellate Division, go to the case status pages on the High Court's own site, delhihighcourt.nic.in.
Both are free. Neither needs a login for a basic search. Both show you the next date, the stage or purpose of the next hearing, the list of past dates and, most of the time, the orders themselves as PDFs. What they won't do is explain what happened on a date. You have to read the order for that.
When you don't know which court it's in, the amount claimed usually gives it away. Delhi sends commercial suits worth up to Rs 2 crore to the district courts. Bigger ones go to the High Court. That figure may move, so check where it stands today. In July 2026 the Full Court of the Delhi High Court recommended taking the district court ceiling up to Rs 10 crore, which can only happen by amending the Delhi High Court Act. Which complex covers which part of Delhi is on our page about the Delhi district commercial courts.
What do you need in hand before you search?
The quickest search is by CNR number. It's unique to your case across the whole country. After that comes case type, number and year, for instance a commercial suit registered as CS (COMM) with its number and year. If you've got neither, you can search by party name. Expect a lot of results, and some trial and error.
In the Delhi High Court, a matter that's been e-filed but not yet registered carries a diary number, not a case number. A defective filing stays under that diary number until the defects are cured and the case gets numbered. So if your lawyer filed last week and the case number search turns up nothing, ask for the diary number.
District court searches need one more thing: the complex, or 'court establishment' in eCourts language. Every Delhi judicial district has its District Judge (Commercial Court) at Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka or Patiala House. Search the wrong complex and your case just won't appear. Which district sits where is listed in our guide on where commercial courts sit in Delhi. These postings get reshuffled now and then, so double-check on the Delhi district courts website first.
How do you check eCourts case status for a Delhi district court?
These steps are for the eCourts services website. The app works the same way, more or less.
Open eCourts services
Go to services.ecourts.gov.in, or open the eCourts Services app. On the website, pick Case Status from the menu.
Use the CNR if you have it
Type the 16-character CNR number into the CNR search box, fill the captcha and hit search. It takes you straight to the case. You don't have to pick a state or district at all.
If not, choose the court
Select the state (Delhi), then the district, then the court establishment, say the commercial courts at Saket. Get the establishment right. A case filed at Tis Hazari won't turn up under Saket.
Pick how you'll search
You can go by Case Number (case type, number and year), Party Name (name and year, pending or disposed), Filing Number or Advocate name. For a commercial suit, choose the commercial case type from the drop-down.
Open the case and look at the history
Click View on the result. You'll get the case details, parties and advocates, first and next hearing dates, purpose of the next hearing, court number, the judge's designation, and a list of earlier dates.
Open the orders
Scroll down to interim orders or final orders and click a date to open that order. Read the latest one in full. The status line is just a summary.
If the search comes back empty, check the year, cut down the words in the party name, and make sure you picked the right establishment. Spelling trips people up more than anything else. To the search engine, 'Pvt Ltd', 'Private Limited' and 'P. Ltd' are three different things.
What's a CNR number, and where do you find it?
CNR stands for Case Number Record. It's a 16-character alphanumeric code that every case registered in a district court on eCourts gets. A case number only makes sense alongside the court and the case type. The CNR identifies your case all by itself. Once you have it, you never need to remember which district or establishment to choose.
It's printed on orders you download from eCourts, and on the case details page. Many courts also put a QR code on the case file or orders, and the eCourts app can scan it. Have none of these? Your advocate's clerk can give it to you in a minute. Save it in your phone with the case title. You'll use it more than you think.
The Delhi High Court works on case type, number and year. A commercial suit is CS(COMM). Commercial appeals are FAO(COMM) or RFA(COMM). Before registration there's only a diary number. Hang on to both the diary number and the final case number, because older orders and letters can use either.
How do you check Delhi High Court case status?
The Delhi High Court runs its own case status pages. These steps cover commercial suits on the original side and commercial appeals.
Go to the case status page
Open delhihighcourt.nic.in and click Case Status. You'll see options to search by case type, party name, advocate name or diary number.
Search by case type, number and year
Pick the case type, CS(COMM) for a commercial suit, put in the number and year, fill the captcha and search. It's the most precise route there is.
No number? Use the party name
Enter the party name and year and choose pending or disposed. Use the unusual part of the name. For a company, the first word or two usually works better than the full registered name.
Use the diary number for fresh filings
If the matter was filed recently and isn't registered yet, search by diary number and year. You'll see whether the registry raised defects and when it's likely to be listed.
Read the listing details
The result shows status, next date, court or bench, and links to orders. Look at whether the next listing is before the judge or before the Joint Registrar. Procedural stages like completion of pleadings, admission and denial of documents and marking of exhibits often go to the Joint Registrar.
Open the orders and judgments
Click the orders link and open each order by date. In the High Court, interim orders usually go up within a few days of the hearing.
Online tools for tracking a commercial case, and how far you can rely on each
| Tool | Covers | What you see | Cost | How up to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eCourts services website | Delhi district courts, plus district courts in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad | Case details, next date, purpose, past dates, interim and final orders | Free | Usually the same day, or within a few days of the hearing |
| eCourts Services mobile app | Same as the website | The same, plus saved cases and QR scanning | Free | Same as the website |
| SMS to 9766899899 | District courts on eCourts | A short status and next date for a CNR | Your normal SMS charge | Same as the website |
| Delhi High Court website | Delhi High Court, original and appellate side | Status, next date, bench, orders, judgments, cause lists | Free | Orders usually within a few days, cause lists the evening before |
| Delhi High Court mobile app | Delhi High Court | Case details and cause lists | Free | Follows the website |
| Certified copy application | Any court | A copy of an order or judgment authenticated by the court | Copying charges under the current schedule | Anything from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the court and how urgent it is |
What do the entries in your case status actually mean?
- Next hearing date and purpose. The purpose ('Appearance', 'Written Statement', 'Admission/Denial', 'Framing of Issues', 'Plaintiff Evidence', 'Final Arguments') tells you the stage. Court staff type it in, and sometimes it's generic. Check it against the last order.
- Case management hearing. In a commercial suit, that's the Order XV-A CPC hearing where the court sets the timetable. If you see it in your history, ask your lawyer what schedule was fixed.
- Listed before the Joint Registrar. In the Delhi High Court this usually means a procedural step, not a hearing on merits. Don't skip it, though. Missing it can get a right closed.
- Adjourned, or 'not reached'. 'Not reached' or 'could not be taken up' means the court ran out of time that day. 'Adjourned' with a party's name next to it means somebody asked for time.
- Reserved. Arguments are done and judgment is reserved. Commercial courts are supposed to pronounce it within 90 days of arguments ending.
- Disposed. The case is finished at that level. But it could have been decreed, dismissed, withdrawn, settled or disposed of in default, and only the final order tells you which.
- Dismissed in default, or ex parte. Treat these as urgent. If the suit was dismissed because the plaintiff didn't appear, or the defendant was proceeded against ex parte, you have to act within limitation. Usually that's 30 days.
How do you read the Delhi High Court cause list for your hearing day?
The cause list is the court's list of matters for the day, court by court, each with an item number. The Delhi High Court puts its daily cause list on the website the evening before. It also publishes supplementary lists for extra matters and for matters moved between benches. If yours isn't in the main list, check the supplementaries before deciding it isn't listed.
Your case will sit under the court number and the judge or bench, with an item number. That number gives you a rough idea of when you'll be called. Joint Registrars have their own lists. A lot of High Court hearings are hybrid now, and each court's video conferencing link is published by the court. Your advocate will have it.
In the district courts, each establishment's cause list is on eCourts and on the district court websites. District commercial courts mostly call matters in the listed order, though some get taken out of turn for orders or urgent mentions. So treat the item number as a rough guide. It's not an appointment.
How do you download orders, and when do you need a certified copy?
Orders and judgments uploaded on eCourts or the Delhi High Court site can be downloaded and read free. For most purposes they're all you need, whether that's knowing what happened or what has to be done before the next date. Many are digitally signed and carry a verification code.
A certified copy is one the court's copying department has authenticated. You may need one to file an appeal, to start execution, to show the order to another court or authority, or simply because a bank or the other party insists. The Delhi High Court and the district courts both take applications for certified copies, online in many cases, on payment of copying charges. If you think you might appeal, apply the day the order is passed. Section 12 of the Limitation Act, 1963 excludes the time needed to get a certified copy when the appeal period is counted. But only the time actually needed. A late application won't stretch your deadline.
Can you get updates without checking every day?
Yes. In the eCourts Services app you can keep your cases in one saved list and see each next date without searching again. Or text ECOURTS, then a space, then the CNR, to 9766899899, and a short status comes back. If a mobile number went on record at filing, SMS alerts may also be sent, though they mostly land with the advocate. For High Court matters, the Delhi High Court launched its own official app in 2019, with case and cause list information.
None of this replaces a short note from your lawyer after each date. What works well is a simple arrangement: your advocate's office sends you the order, or a one-line update, within a day or two of every hearing. Our note on keeping clients updated during a commercial case sets out a routine we follow. Arbitrations at the Delhi International Arbitration Centre run on a separate system. For those, see how to track DIAC case status and hearing dates.
How do you check commercial cases in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad?
It's the same eCourts system. It covers district courts all over India. For a commercial suit in Gautam Buddh Nagar or Ghaziabad, pick Uttar Pradesh, then the district, then the establishment. For Gurugram or Faridabad, pick Haryana. The CNR search works without choosing anything. Case type names can differ a little from Delhi's, so if the case number search fails, try the party name.
Appeals take a different road outside Delhi. From Ghaziabad and Noida they go up to the Allahabad High Court, and from Gurugram and Faridabad to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh. Both High Courts run their own websites where you can look a case up by type, number and year, or by party name. Our pages on the Noida commercial court and the other district courts have the local filing details.
If your company is being sued in several places, the practical way to find every case is to search party name and year in each district that matters. Be careful. Look-alike names are everywhere in NCR industrial areas (think how many firms in Okhla or Sahibabad share the same two words), and a name match by itself doesn't prove the case is against you.
Why does your case get a new number at each stage?
We get this call a lot: 'the case has disappeared from the website'. It almost never has. It's moved on to a new stage, and the new stage has a new number. File an appeal against a commercial court judgment and you've started a fresh case in the appellate court, with a separate case type and number, and in the district system a separate CNR too. Execution after a decree gets registered on its own, apart from the suit. Suits moved between courts, old ones shifted into commercial courts included, can pick up a fresh number in the new court.
In the Delhi High Court, every interim application filed in a suit gets its own I.A. number, and orders often mention that number instead of the suit. So if an order says 'I.A. 1234/2026 is allowed', don't panic. That application is part of your suit, and you'll find it in the suit's order history.
Section 12A pre-institution mediation under the Commercial Courts Act is another thing entirely. It happens through the legal services authority before there's any suit, so you won't find it on eCourts. For the mediation reference and the next sitting, ask your lawyer or the District Legal Services Authority running it. After the suit is filed, keep a single note linking every number that belongs to this dispute: mediation reference, suit number, CNR, appeal number, execution number. It sounds fussy. Two years on, hunting for one order in a hurry, you'll be glad of it.
Why is the online status sometimes wrong or late?
Court staff enter the data, often at the end of a long day. The next date might go up a day or two after the hearing. An order might be uploaded a week later. The purpose field can say 'Evidence' when the court actually heard an application. Dates also shift when the presiding officer is on leave and the reader gives a new date, and that may show online only later.
So treat the status line as a pointer. The order is the record. Where they disagree, the order wins. If a date has passed and no order is uploaded, ask your advocate what happened, and if needed, ask the court staff. Advocate B.K. Singh's tip on this is a simple one. Before every date, read the last order itself, not the status line. The order says what has to be filed and by whom. The status line never does.
Older cases have gaps too. Suits filed many years ago, or moved from civil courts to commercial courts, sometimes have only half a history online. For those, inspecting the court file or getting certified copies of the order sheet is the only reliable way.
An invented example: one company, two cases, two websites
This is a made-up example. A Noida packaging unit has two commercial matters in Delhi. One is a Rs 60 lakh recovery suit it filed against a Lajpat Nagar retailer in the Saket commercial court. The other is an appeal the retailer later filed in the Delhi High Court against an interim attachment order.
The unit's accounts head saves the CNR of the Saket suit in the eCourts app. Next date, purpose 'Admission/Denial'. She opens the last order. It directs both sides to file affidavits of admission and denial of documents within 15 days of inspection, so she forwards it to the company's lawyer and asks when inspection is happening.
The appeal doesn't show in the eCourts app at all, because it's in the High Court. So she goes to the Delhi High Court case status page, searches by party name with the retailer's name and the year, and finds an FAO(COMM) listed before a Division Bench the following week. The evening before, she checks the cause list and notes the item number. On the day, she follows the hearing on the court's video link, which her lawyer sends her. Two cases. Two systems. About ten minutes a week.
What should you keep handy to check status quickly?
- The CNR for every district court case, saved next to the case title
- Case type, number and year (say, CS (COMM) with its number and year)
- Which court establishment or complex it's in, and the court number
- The Delhi High Court diary number for a fresh filing, and the case number once it's registered
- Party names spelt exactly the way the plaint spells them
- Your advocate's name as it's recorded in the case
- The filing date, and the date of the last hearing
- A folder of downloaded orders, each file named by its date
What should you do if the status shows something worrying?
A few entries mean you've got days, not months. Say the suit shows 'dismissed in default'. The restoration application under Order IX Rule 9 of the CPC ordinarily has to go in within 30 days of the dismissal (Article 122 of the Limitation Act). Or say you're the defendant and the screen tells you an ex parte order, or an ex parte decree, has been passed against you. To get it set aside under Order IX Rule 13, you ordinarily have 30 days from the decree, or from the date you learnt of it if summons were never properly served on you. We go through the grounds on our page on how to set aside an ex parte decree.
If it says 'decreed' and you're the plaintiff, execution comes next. If you're the defendant, the 60-day appeal period under Section 13 of the Commercial Courts Act has started running. And if it shows a case against your company that nobody told you about, find out today whether summons were served and at which address. The time limits for a written statement in a commercial suit are strict. Very strict.
Maybe it isn't one entry that bothers you but years of dates and very little progress. Our guide on what to do if your commercial case has been pending for years sets out what you can do about that.
When should you look beyond the online status?
For dates and orders, the online status does the job. It won't show you what the other side has filed, whether your own documents actually made it onto the record, or what really happened in an old case whose online history has holes. That needs an inspection of the court file by your advocate. In the High Court, advocates on record can usually see the e-filed record. If a fresh filing is coming up, our guide to e-filing a commercial suit in Delhi shows where the numbers and diary entries come from in the first place.
For a matter in the Delhi High Court, our page on the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court explains how listing works there. The district commercial courts page covers the courts below.
If you'd like someone to read your latest orders and tell you what they actually require of you, or to keep you posted on changes like the Delhi pecuniary limit, you can reach Advocate B.K. Singh through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I check my case status without a lawyer?
Yes. Anyone can use the eCourts services website and app, and the Delhi High Court website, for a basic search. No login. You'll need the CNR number, the case number, or at least the party name and year.
How many characters are there in a CNR number?
Sixteen. A CNR number is a 16-character alphanumeric code given to every case registered in a district court on eCourts. You'll find it on downloaded orders and on the case details page, and your advocate's office can give it to you.
Why can't I find my Delhi High Court case on eCourts?
High Court matters are on the Delhi High Court's own website. Search there by case type, party name, advocate name or diary number. The cause lists and orders are there too.
My lawyer filed the suit, but it doesn't show online. Why?
It may not be registered yet. In the Delhi High Court a new matter carries a diary number until the defects are cured and it gets numbered. In the district courts, registration and data entry can take a few days. Ask your lawyer for the diary or filing number.
Can I file an appeal with a downloaded order?
For reading and planning, a downloaded order does the job. To file an appeal or start execution, or to use the order before another authority, you'll usually need a certified copy. Apply for it as soon as the order is passed.
Can I get SMS updates on my case?
For district court cases, send ECOURTS, a space and your CNR number to 9766899899 and you'll get a short status reply. The eCourts app also lets you save cases and see the next dates.
What does 'listed before Joint Registrar' mean in the Delhi High Court?
Usually that a procedural stage, such as completion of pleadings, admission and denial of documents or marking of exhibits, is being handled by a Joint Registrar instead of the judge. Missing that date can still cost you. Treat it as a real hearing.
How do I find every case filed against my company in Delhi NCR?
Search by party name and year on eCourts for each district that matters, and on the Delhi High Court, Allahabad High Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court websites. Go through each result carefully, because similar names are common. Confirm it by reading the plaint or order.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district and commercial courts in Delhi NCR, and tribunals.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.