The Supreme Court recently released a draft list of 10,000 of its judgements with neutral citations from January 1, 2014 to March 31, 2023.
The list was released as a crowdsourced checking, so that any missing or erroneous information may be addressed with the assistance of legal specialists and publishers.
The notice has asked for input within 15 days to be sent to the Registrar of the Supreme Court’s Library and Editorial Section.
“We solicit invaluable suggestions on the proposed list of cases and referral neutral citations. One may compare the list of cases and neutral citations with their own database and make suggestions regarding any missing or incorrect data, if any, in the list of judgements on consideration of suggestions received, the Registry will publish a final list of judgements with neutral citation,” the notice stated.
As of now, the citations are 12 characters long each.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud first announced such neutral citation in open court in February of this year.
He had stated that the neutral citation will be done in three phases for all of the Court’s judgements.
The first phase, which covers judgements dating back to 2014, has already been finalised. The second tranche will cover the years 1995 to 2013, while the third will cover the years 1950 to 1994.
According to the CJI, the Court is using machine learning tools to translate its decisions from English to vernacular languages.
The proposed Neutral Citation is intended to be the Supreme Court’s recognised citation method, independent of Law Reports or other publications, and unique to each decision.
Every Supreme Court order and judgement (reportable and non-reportable) will now have its own citation, allowing for easier identification, referencing, and retrieval of cases.
Everyone will have free access to such citations.
The Supreme Court formed a three-member team of High Court justices in November of last year to develop and implement a uniform and unique citation for judgements.
The High Courts of Delhi, Kerala, and Madras have already introduced neutral citations for their decisions.
