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Guides for advocates

Reading Supreme Court and High Court neutral citations

Draft — pending legal review. Our legal lead has not yet reviewed this guide. Read the sources before relying on anything in it.

What 2023 INSC 123 and 2025:BHC-OS:19789-DB mean, why a 1973 judgment has an INSC number, and where to check one.

Not legal advice. Our guides are general information for advocates, not legal advice. Every legal statement in them quotes or cites its source; read the source before you rely on it.

What a neutral citation is

A neutral citation is issued by the court itself, not by a law report. The Supreme Court's notice of 27 April 2023 put it this way:

“The neutral citation is a form of citation where the Supreme Court would assign a unique sequential number to each judgment as a permanent identification.”

Supreme Court: 2023 INSC 123

The Supreme Court's notice of 6 July 2023 sets out the format, using 2023INSC1 as its example:

  • “The first four characters 2023 are the YEAR of pronouncement of judgment, order;
  • The abbreviation INSC stands for the relevant court i.e. India Supreme Court, and
  • 1 is the in seriatim number of the judgment, order.”

So 2023 INSC 123 reads: pronounced in 2023, Supreme Court of India, number 123 in that year's series. The year is the year the judgment was pronounced, which may not be the year in a law report's citation of it.

Why a 1973 judgment has an INSC number

Neutral citations were not only given to new judgments. The July 2023 notice says Phase I covers “the judgments and orders pronounced during the relevant period of 01.01.2014 to 05.07.2023 and 06.07.2023 onwards”. The Court's circular of 27 September 2023 extended the system backwards: Phase II “shall cover all the reported judgments and orders pronounced during the relevant period of 30.01.1950 to 31.12.2013 and published in Supreme Court Reports (SCR)”, in the format 1950 INSC 1.

That is why, for example, Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, decided on 24 April 1973, is 1973 INSC 91 (serial number 5164 in the list annexed to the September 2023 circular) as well as [1973] Supp. 1 S.C.R. 1. An INSC citation with a year before 2023 is not a sign of a fake.

To check one, search the Court's e-SCR portal for the neutral citation, and compare the parties and date with your draft.

Bombay High Court: 2025:BHC-OS:19789-DB

We have not found a Bombay High Court circular or notification that sets out its neutral citation format, so this section describes only what the Court's own orders print. Two examples, each printed at the top of the order's first page:

  • 2025:BHC-OS:19789-DB on an order of 6 October 2025 in the Court's Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction, by a Bench of two judges.
  • 2026:BHC-AS:827 on an order of 7 January 2026 in the Court's Civil Appellate Jurisdiction, by one judge.

Each has the year, then BHC- with a code (OS on the order headed “Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction”, AS on the order headed “Civil Appellate Jurisdiction”), then a number, separated by colons; the two-judge order ends -DB. Orders of the Court's other benches may carry other codes. Without the Court's own circular we do not say more about what each part means: check the order itself on the High Court's website.

Other High Courts

Where another High Court issues neutral citations, its format may differ from both of these, and we have not verified those formats here. Before relying on one, read that court's own notice or the judgment itself on the court's website. Our checker reads Supreme Court and Bombay High Court neutral citations; it does not yet read other High Courts' formats.

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Sources

  1. Supreme Court of India, Notice of 27 April 2023: neutral citation and list of judgments. What a neutral citation is, and the proposed numbers for 1 January 2014 to 31 March 2023.
  2. Supreme Court of India, Notice of 6 July 2023: launch and implementation of the Neutral Citation System in a phased manner. The format (year, INSC, serial number) and Phase I (judgments and orders from 1 January 2014).
  3. Supreme Court of India, Circular of 27 September 2023: implementation of Phase-II of the Neutral Citation System. Phase II: reported judgments of 30 January 1950 to 31 December 2013 published in the SCR.
  4. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, 1973 INSC 91, [1973] Supp. 1 S.C.R. 1 (Supreme Court of India, 24 April 1973). Our copy of the judgment's text. Its neutral citation, 1973 INSC 91, is serial number 5164 in the list annexed to the Supreme Court's circular of 27 September 2023 (page 318).
  5. KMG Wires Private Limited v. National Faceless Assessment Centre, Writ Petition (L) No. 24366 of 2025, Bombay High Court, order of 6 October 2025, 2025:BHC-OS:19789-DB. A free copy of the order as the Court issued it, with its neutral citation at the top of the first page.
  6. Deepak Shivkumar Bahry v. Heart and Soul Entertainment Ltd., Writ Petition No. 8390 of 2009, Bombay High Court, order of 7 January 2026, 2026:BHC-AS:827. A free copy of the order as the Court issued it, with its neutral citation at the top of the first page.
  7. Supreme Court of India, Digital Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR). The Court's own reports.

Sources last checked on 28 October 2026. A source that links to one of our judgment pages opens our copy of the Court's own text, from the Supreme Court Reports. We use no commercial law reporter's headnotes or editorial content.