How to find whether a judgment was overruled

Why the size of the Bench matters

A Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court summed up the position in Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community v. State of Maharashtra, 2004 INSC 720, [2004] Supp. 6 S.C.R. 1054, at 1062:

“(1) The law laid down by this Court in a decision delivered by a Bench of larger strength is binding on any subsequent Bench of lesser or coequal strength.”

The same passage goes on to say what a smaller Bench may do when it doubts a larger Bench's view, and the exceptions. Read the whole passage, at pages 1062 to 1063, before you rely on it. In practice, this is why you need to know the strength of the Bench in each judgment: the judgment you cite, and any later judgment that disagrees with it.

How to search

1. Note the Bench. Write down the number of judges who decided the judgment you cite, and its date. For a Supreme Court judgment, search the Court's e-SCR portal and read the report itself.
2. Find later judgments that cite it. Search the Court's reports, and any database you use, for the case name and for each of its citations, including its neutral citation. Read the later judgments themselves, not only a list or a summary of them.
3. Read what each later judgment did with it. Look for words such as “overruled”, “not good law”, “referred to a larger Bench”, “doubted”, “distinguished” and “followed”, and then read the passage. Being cited is not being followed: a later judgment may cite yours only to disagree with it, or to say it does not apply.
4. Compare the Benches. Check the strength of any later Bench that disagreed with yours, in the light of the passage above.
5. Check for a pending reference. Search for any order referring the question to a larger Bench, and check whether that Bench has decided it.
6. Check later statutes. An amendment or a new Act may have changed the provision the judgment interpreted. Read the provision as it stands today.
7. Check the appeal. A High Court judgment may have been set aside or modified on appeal. Search the Supreme Court's records for an appeal from it.

What our tools do and do not do

• Our judgment pages show how many other Supreme Court judgments we hold cite a judgment, with the newest of them, where we have built that count. Counted only in the Supreme Court judgments we hold whose text we could read, not in High Court judgments. We match each citation to a judgment automatically, so a citation we cannot match is not counted. "Cited" says only that a judgment refers to this one, not whether it followed, distinguished or overruled it.
• Our checker does not tell you whether a judgment has been overruled, reversed, doubted or referred to a larger Bench. A “Verified” result means the judgment exists and the citation and quote match it, not that it is still good law.
• We hold Supreme Court judgments only up to the date shown on our home page, and High Court judgments are not yet counted. A judgment that overruled yours may be newer than our copy, or from another court.