Indian Legal System

Indian legal history

Historically India was a collection of kingdoms and empires and the legal system only based on customary law. As a consequence of British rule since 1750 to till 1947, great portions of Indian Law are substantially based on British law, British legal system and the English language.

Indian legal history is divided into four periods i.e. 1) the Ancient Hindu Period; 2) the Muslim Period;    3) the British Period; and 4) the Post- Independence Period.

1) Law and Judicial System in the Ancient Hindu Period: During this period, Indian legal system took its shade from the Hindu religious and social practice and this Hindu society was characterized by the caste system i.e. Brahmin; Kshatriya; Vaisyas; & Sudras and the joint family system. Broadly Indian Legal system based on “Dharmshastra” (Manusmriti), written in Sanskrit, which is concerning the religious & legal duty of a citizen where king’s role as the fountain head of justice. The ancient Indian judicial system resided courts hierarchy, where King’s Court being the highest (King’s advised by his ministers), then Court of Chief Justice or Pradvivaka, then Council of Justice and then Village Councils of Arbitrators or Kulani similar to modern village panchayat.

A suit or trial (Vyavahara) consist four parts of judicial procedure i.e. the plaint (poorva-paksha), the reply (uttar), the trial & investigation of dispute by the court (kriya) and the verdict or decision (nirnaya).

Print Books

• Kane, Pandurang Vaman. History of Dharmasastra. Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1990 
• Muller, Max F (ed.). Laws of manu. Vol. 25. Delhi: Low Price, 2008
• Doniger, Wendy. Laws of Manu. New Delhi: Penguin, 1991 
• Chaturvedi, Ramgopal.Manu ki vidhi samhita. New Delhi: Universal Law, 2009 – in Hindi
• Nandi, N. Encyclopaedia of Hindu law. 2^nd ed. Allahabad: Dwivedi Law Agency, 2009.
• Desai, S A and Mulla. Mulla principles of hindu law. 20^th ed. 2 vols. Nagpur: Lexis Nexis, 2007

eBooks

• Olivelle, Patrick. Manu's Code of Law : A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava-Dharmasastra. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 

2) Law and Judicial System in the Muslim Period: started in 12^th century from 1206-1750 A.D. and this period divided into two phases i.e. Sultanate Period (1206-1526) and Mughal Period (1526-1750). Broadly Muslim judicial procedure was regulated by two Muslim codes i.e. Fiqh-e-Firoz Shahi and Fatwa-i-Alamgiri and the primary sources of Muslim law are Koran, Sunna & Ahadis, Ijma and Qiyas. The Muslim judicial system hierarchy

a.       At capital (Delhi) level

Emperor’s Court

(Highest Court of the Empire)

Chief Court                                         Chief Revenue Court

(original & appellate civil & criminal cases)               (revenue cases)            

Court of Qazi of Delhi                            Court of Qazi-e-Askar

(Local civil & criminal cases)                   (Military cases in the capital)

b.      At state level

Governor’s own court & the bench

(Adalat-e-Nazim)

Chief Appellate Court                                         Chief Revenue Court

(Civil & criminal cases)                                          (Revenue cases)       

c.       At district level

Chief civil & criminal court of the District

Faujdari Adalat                              Kotwali                            Amalguzari Kachehri

(State security)                     (like modern police act)               (Revenue cases)

d.      At parganas level

Adalat-e-Pargana

(for civil & criminal cases)

Kotwali                                          Kachehri

(like modern police act)               (Revenue cases)

e.      At village level - Panchayat

Print Books

• Abdel Haleem, M A, ed. Quran. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010
• Picken, Gavin N, ed. Islamic law. 4 vols. London: Routledge, 2011
• Muslim personal law (Shariat) application act, 1937. New Delhi: Universal Law. 2010
• Wherry, E M, Comprehensive commentary on the Quran. Vol III. London: Routledge, 2002
• Bearman, P J, et al., ed. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 13 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
• Afridi, MMRK and M H Syed, ed. Encyclopaedia of Islamic shariat. 10 vols. New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2010
• Diwan, Paras. Muslim law in modern India. 10^th ed. Faridabad: Allahabad Law Agency, 2011. 
• Abdel Haleem, M A, ed. Quran. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010

3) Legal System in India during the British Period:  During over 200 years of British period in India, they applied English Law as extended to India but in personal matters, they applied customary law. Even different personal laws, govern family law especially Hindu & Muslim laws in Modern Indian Legal System.  Indian legal history can be traced back when King George I issued a charter in 1726 to change Presidency Town’s i.e. Bombay, Calcutta and Madras judicial administration by introducing Privy Council in England.

Privy Council (1726-1949) exercise appellate jurisdiction and pronounced over 2500 judgments & laid down fundamental principles of law for guidance of Indian courts. British Government established three Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William at Calcutta; Madras; and Bombay which are abolished by The Indian High Court’s Act, 1861 to modernize the prevalent judicial system and also established Sadar Diwani Adalats (a Supreme Court of Revenue) in the Presidency Towns. British Authorities inaugurated 1^st constitutional court Federal Court of India at Delhi on October 1’ 1937 for all original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions and was replaced by Supreme Court of India in Jan. 26’1950.

4) Law and Judicial System of Modern India: British Colonial period is the foundation of modern Indian legal system where Privy Council’s (1726-1949) contribution especially 1833 onwards, in making Indian Law and Judicial System was remarkable. Law declared by Privy Council in pre-constitution period is still binding on High Courts except in those cases where Supreme Court has declared law in its judgments.  Modern judicial system of India elaborated in next section.

Constitution of India

Constitution of India is the fountain source of law which was drafted by “Constituent Assembly” in 2 years, 11 months & 18 days by referring constitutional documents of Australia, Canada, Ireland & USA and enacted in 26^th Nov. 1949. This is in 22 parts, 12 schedule and 395 articles.

Official Websites

• Constitution of India by in various languages by Legislativ Department of Ministry of Law & Justice, Govt. of India
• Constitution of India by  the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Govt. of India
• Constituent Assembly Debates by Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha
• Constitution (Amendment) Acts, including statement of objects & reasons (SOR) 

Subscribed Resources

• [Online] Constitutions and Fundamental Laws-  World Constitutions Illustrated, HeinOnline
• [Print]
  • ​Constitution of India : Replica
  • Basu, Durga Das. Shorter Constitution of India. 14^th ed. 2 vols. Nagpur: Lexis Nexis, 2009
  • Basu, Durga Das. Bharat Ka Samidhan. 9^th ed. Nagpur: Lexis Nexis, 2006. – in Hindi
  • M P Singh. V N Shukla`s Constitution of India. 11^th ed.  Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2008
  • Bakshi, P M. Constitution of India. 9^th ed. New Delhi: Universal Law, 2009
  • Austin, Granville. Working a Democratic Constitution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
  • Constituent Assembly Debates. 12 vols. New Delhi:  Lok Sabha Secretariat, 2009- Print

Indian Judicial Structure

The source of law largely depends on the type of any country’s legal system. There are five types of  legal system i.e. civil law; common law; customary law; religious law and mixed law.

India has a federal judicial system which legal system based on mixed law i.e. based on parliamentary legislature, court laws, customary & religious laws as well.

Powers & Jurisdiction of Indian Courts

Power & jurisdiction of Indian courts & their official website can be found under “Civil Procedure and Alternative Dispute Resolution” resource guide in “Judicial System in India” section.  

Sources of Indian Legal Research

Global library holding a numbers of proprietary sources for Indian Legal research including statutes, case laws, commentaries, bare acts, books in print format as well as online legal databases.

Here we listed some renowned Global library collection and also most authenticated official (government) websites for Indian legal research, where you can found appropriate information beside Global library resource.  

We also listed some relevant web links* of other organizations and free resources.

A. Primary Sources including the Constitution of India; Statutes like legislation by Parliament of India; State & Union Territory        Legislature; Case Law or court decisions and Treaties & International Agreements and Customary Law

B. Secondary Sources including Books & Serials: Commentaries; Periodicals/Yearbooks: Law Reviews; Dictionaries,                      Lexicons &  Encyclopedias; Electronic Databases

C. Territory Sources and Resource Discovery tools including Legislative Digest ; Case Law Digest & indexes, Case citators,      Equivalence tables and Web based resources

D. Electronic Sources: Proprietary sources, Official web portals

E. People, organizations and other open web sources

Primary Sources of Law

Primary Sources of Law are in the Indian constitution, enactments passed by Parliament of India, statute, case laws, treaties and customary law.

1. Constitutions/ Charters
Constitution/ Charters are the fundamental principles of law by which a government is created and a country is administered. Charters are as a constitution, the document issued by government establishing a corporate entity e.g. Government of India Act, 1848 (Queen Victoria Charter Act) during British Period, Charter of the United Nations, Magna Carta- one of the oldest Charter of United Kingdom and like.
Constitution of India is the fountain source of law which was drafted by “Constituent Assembly” in 2 years, 11 months & 18 days by referring constitutional documents of Australia, Canada, Ireland & USA and enacted in 26^th Nov. 1949. This is in 22 parts, 12 schedule and 395 articles.

Subscribed Resources

• Constitutions and Fundamental Laws-  World Constitutions Illustrated, HeinOnline - Online
• Replica of original handwritten Constitution of India- Print
• Basu, Durga Das. Shorter Constitution of India. 15^th ed. 2 vols. Gurgaon: Lexis Nexis, 2018- Print
• Basu, Durga Das. Bharat Ka Samidhan. 9^th ed. Nagpur: Lexis Nexis, 2006. – in Hindi- Print
• M P Singh. V N Shukla`s Constitution of India. 12^h ed.  Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2013- Print
• Bakshi, P M. Constitution of India. 9^th ed. New Delhi: Universal Law, 2009- Print
• Austin, Granville. Working a Democratic Constitution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999- Print
• Constituent Assembly Debates. 12 vols. New Delhi:  Lok Sabha Secretariat, 2009- Print

Official Websites

• Constitution of India by in various languages by Legislativ Department of Ministry of Law & Justice, Govt. of India
• Constitution of India by  the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Govt. of India

2. Statutes
Statutes are act of legislature, adopted under its constitutional authority. Statutes are enacted to prescribe conduct, define crimes, create inferior government bodies, appropriate public monies, and in general to promote the public welfare.

• Session Laws:  are the laws bound in volumes in the order of their enactment by a state legislature, before possible codification. Source of session laws are by Legislative bodies: Chronological Order by sessions, Acts of Parliament.

Legislation by Parliament of India

Subscribed Resources

• Act of Parliament, 1915; Government of India Act, 1935; Act of the British Parliament et al.-  World Constitutions Illustrated, HeinOnline
• Chitaley,V  V, ed.  All India Reporter. Nagpur:  All India Reporter, 1921-2009- Print
• Manohar, W W, and V R Chitaley,  ed. AIR Manual Unrepealed Central Acts. 6^th ed. 19 vols. Nagpur:  All India Reporter, 2004- Print
• Civil Court Manual (Central Acts). 12th ed. 42 vols.  Madras: Madras Law Journal, 1987 - for civil procedure legislation- Print

Official Websites

• India Code Information System (INCODIS) by National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, contains all Central Acts of Parliament right from 1836 onwards where each act includes: Short Title, Enactment Date, Sections, Schedule and also Foot notes.
• LII: India includes acts, bills, parliamentary summaries, and much more. National legislation dates back to 1836.
• Parliament of India source for parliamentary debates, bills and legislations. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha full-text bills, constituently assembly debates also linked here.

State & Union Territory Legislation

• LII: India  includes acts, schemes, regulations and much more of Indian states and union territories.

• Official gazettes:  are the government publications after enactment of a legislature like Federal Register (US), GOI Gazette Part II section 1: Acts, Ordinances and Regulations
  • Gazette of India , To search & download Indian Gazette  
  • Indian & State Gazettes can be explored on Bombay High Court Judge's Library

• Official Publications: Individual Central and State Bare Acts. Search by Subject title, Act or Year
  • Subscribed Sources: SCC Online; Manupatra; Westlaw India, Lexis Advance India
  • India Code 

• Compilations of codified laws:  compilation of codified laws is a collection of statutes existing as well as in force that are publish as Annual Volumes or loose-leaf form usually by subject e.g. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) , Halsbury’s Statutes of England, Halsbury`s annotated statutes of India
  • Sandhu, Harish Kumar, ed. Halsbury`s Annotated Statutes of India. 10 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2009.- Print
  • Bare Acts on specific subject area like Civil code, Criminal Code, Indian Penal Code and like - Print
  • Online Sources: SCC Online; Manupatra; Westlaw India, Lexis Advance India, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

• Compilations of specific laws by private publishers:  like AIR MANUAL, Halsbury’s  Laws, Civil Court manual, Criminal Court Manual
  • Manohar, W W, and V R Chitaley, ed. AIR Manual Unrepealed Central Acts (Civil and Criminal). 6^th ed. 35 vols. Nagpur:  All India Reporter, 2004- Print
  • Civil Court Manual (Central Acts). 12th ed. 42 vols.  Madras: Madras Law Journal, 1987 - for civil procedure legislation- Print 
  • Halsbury`s laws of India. 45 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2008 - Print

• Administrative rules/regulations:  Published in Gazette of India (GOI) Part II Section 3
  • Gazette of India

• Subscribed legal databases for primary sources
  • SCC Online; Manupatra; Westlaw India, Lexis Advance India; HeinOnline

​

3. Case Law or court decisions

Consist case laws and judgments of India’s Supreme Court, High Court, District Courts, Tribunals and Commissions. Coverage of JGU subscribed source of case law & decisions are mentioned below:

• Official Law Reports
  • Supreme Court Reports & Databases
    • Supreme Court Reports
    • Supreme Court Reports [V68-77, V87-88] – Print
  • Government Official Database:
    • SUPLIS--Database of Supreme Court Caselaws [1950 onwards]
    • JUDIS consists of the Judgments of the Supreme Court of India and several High Courts since 1950 to till date.
  • International Law Reports: like Appeal Cases, Chancery Division (CH), Queen’s Bench, Family Division (Fam.), Weekly Law Reports etc.

• Law Reports compiled by private publishers: like AllER, AIR, SCC
  • Supreme Court Cases [1969- onwards] – Print
  • Supreme Court Journal [2014 onwards] – available online in Manupatra
  • Supreme Court Almanac [2007-2012] includes both reported & non-reported judgments and orders & proceedings – Print
  • All India Reporter [1921-onwards ] – Print
  • All England Law Reports [1936-onwards ] - Print 
  • AIR Supreme Court Weekly [1991-onwards ] in AIR CD-ROM Database

• Subject Law Reports: Criminal Law Reports, Labour Law Reports etc
  • Criminal Law Journal [1950-onwards] in AIR CD-ROM Database
  • AIR Accident Claims & Compensation Cases
  • AIR Cheque Dishonor Reports
  • AIR Civil Cases
  • Butterworths Company Law Cases
  • Butterworths Human Right Cases
  • Divorce and Matrimonial Cases
  • Labour and Industrial Cases
  • Labour Law Journal
  • Madras Law Journal (Civil)
  • Madras Law Journal (Criminal)
• Court sites: Official websites of Supreme Court of India and all Indian high courts with their brief description and respective official publications can be found under  ‘Primary Sources (Statutes, Court Rules & Procedures) – Indian’ tab of Resource Guide on Civil Procedure and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Tribunals and Commissions can also found under ‘Indian Tribunals and Commissions’ tab.

Secondary Sources of Law

1. Books & Serials: Commentaries - Print

Commentary is a series of explanations or annotations and a record of popular facts and case laws. Commentaries provide comprehensive coverage of a broad area of law, such as criminal law, administrative law, contract, etc.

2. Periodicals/Yearbooks: Law Reviews

[Law reviews/ periodicals- statutes, cases & articles]

• AIR accidental claims and compensation [2013 onwards]- Print+ Online
• AIR Cheque Dishonor Reports [2013 onwards] – Print+ Online
• AIR Civil Cases – formerly All India High Court Cases (Unreported Judgements) [2013 onwards] - Print+ Online
• AIR Law Lines : monthly update of legal precedents [2013 onwards] - Print+ Online
• Corporate Law Advisor  [1989 onwards] – Print + Online
• Criminal Law Journal [1915 onwards] – Print + Online
• Delhi Law Times [1967 onwards] – Print + Online
• Divorce & Matrimonial Cases [1982 onwards] – Print + Online
• Labour And Industrial Cases [2013 onwards] – Print + Online
• Labour Law Journal [1949 onwards] – Print + Online
• Madras Law Journal- Civil [1892 onwards] – Print + Online
• Madras Law Journal – Criminal [V69-V72] – Print

 [Journals]

• Indian Journal of International Law- print  [V48 onwards]– Print
• Journal of  Indian Law Institute- print [2009 onwards] – Print
• National Law School of Indian Review- databases [2008 onwards] – Print + Online
   

3. Dictionaries, Lexicons &  Encyclopedias - Print

• Aiyar, P Ramanatha. P Ramanatha Aiyar`s Advanced Law Lexicon. 3<sup>rd</sup> ed. 4 vols.   Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2009.
• Iyer, V R Krishna. Wharton's Law Lexicon with Exhaustive Reference to Indian Case Law. 15<sup>th</sup> ed. New Delhi: Universal Law, 2009
• Aiyar, Krishna Jagadisa. K. J. Aiyer’s Judicial Dictionary. 14<sup>th</sup> ed. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2007
• Greenberg, Daniel and Alexandra Milbrook. Stroud`s Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases. 7^th ed. 3 vols. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2006
• Motion, A W. Pocket Law Lexicon. 8^th ed. New Delhi: Universal Law, 2009
• Halsbury`s laws of India. 45 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2008 - Encyclopedia

Tertiary Sources of Law & Resource Discovery Tools

1. Legislative Digest

Legislative digest is a means to accessing any act or statute of a nation.

• *D.V. Chitaley, and N. Ramaratnam. The fifty Years' digest, 1901-1950 : Civil, Criminal & Revenue. Nagpur: All India Reporter.

2. Case Law Digest & indexes - Print

Case law digest is a means of accessing case law by topical or subject wise.

• Soonavala, J K. Soonavala`s Supreme Court Criminal Digest (1950-2006). 4^th ed. 4 vols.  Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2007.
• Malik, Sumeet. Supreme Court Yearly Digests. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2009
• Malik, Surendra. Complete Digest of Supreme Court Cases. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2000
• Malik, Surendra. Supreme Court Decennial Digest 1981-90. 5 vols. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company.
• Malik, Surendra. Supreme Court Decennial Digests 1981-90. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 1993
• Malik, Sumeet. Supreme Court Quinquennial Digests 1996-2000. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company, 2006.
• Soni, Ashok. Supreme Court on Service Laws 1950 to date. 2 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2009
• Labour Law Journal Digest [1976-1999]

3. Case Citators

a tools for case law research which provide information like the correct citation for a case; whether the case has been reported multiple times; a case has been considered, applied, distinguished, or overruled.

• Supreme court case citator. 4 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2007 - Print
• Dobia, T S and Laxman Shinde. High court citator (1949-2008). 2 vols. Nagpur: LexisNexis, 2009 – Print

4. Equivalent Citation Table is a tool to know the parallel citations of cases published in different journals

• Link: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/ect.htm

5. Web Based Resources:

• CaseBase Case Citator <http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/en-AU/products/CaseBase-Case-Citator-online.page>, Shepardizing Online<http://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/shepards.page>  (LexisNexis)
• FirstPoint <http://www.thomsonreuters.com.au/products/firstpoint/>, KeyCiting Online (Thomson Reuter)
• JustCite (Justis) <www.justcite.com>
• LawCite <http://www.austlii.edu.au/lawcite/> free legal case and journal article citator
• Google <www.google.com> as resource locator
   

* Global Library don’t have this in their collection

Electronic Sources: Proprietary sources, Official web portals

1. Subscribed sources: Global Library has a collection of legal electronic resources <http://www.jgu.edu.in/library/content/e-journals-multi-format-resources>, which includes:

• SCC Online a legal database, covers Indian Case-Law of Supreme Court of India (1969 onwards); Privy Council (1872-1949); 21 Indian High Courts; tribunanals & commissions; Indian Statutory Law including central statutes, circulars, notifications, instructions, rules, regulations etc.
• Manupatra  includes Indian Supreme court cases & judgements 1950 – onwards, 24 Indian High courts cases & orders; 27 Tribunals and Commissions orders; more than 1,800 Central Bare Acts/ Statutes incorporating latest amendments; cover 10,000+ frequently used State Bare Acts/ Statutes etc.
• Taxmann’s Corporate, Direct & Indirect and International Taxation Law provides Statues, Case Laws & Commentaries on Domestic and International Taxation & Corporate Laws
• AIR Comprehensive Database (Offline Database) consist AIR Supreme Court including AIR SCW, AIR High Courts  and Criminal Law Journal Software from 1950 to March 2013
• AIR Privy Council Database (Offline Database) consist AIR Privy Council from 1914-1950
• Westlaw India majority of this database is UK cases coverage. Beside UK & US legal material, it also consist Indian Supreme Court judgement 1950 onwards & orders 2010 onwards, case reports, Federal Court Judgments 1938- 1950, 20 Indian High Courts judgements, 14 Tribunals judgement, Legislations 1800 onwards, 11 State Legislation, Current Awareness of cases & legislation etc.
• LexisNexis Academic consist law reviews & articles of more than 800 publications, Federal and state cases and statutes including U.S. Supreme Court Decisions since 1790, Federal regulations etc.
• HeinOnline legal database with full text and page images of thousands of law review articles, treatises and primary sources of law, focusing on retrospective historical coverage. It consist around 1757 law related periodicals, 127 U.S. treaties & agreements, 3641 World Constitutions and many more.

2. Official websites of Government Organizations

• Law Commission of India is an executive body of Government of India, major function is to work for reform the Law for maximizing Justice in Society and Promoting Good Governance under the Rule of Law. You can find all full-text Law Commission of India reports here.
• Ministry of Law and Justice deals with the management of the legal affairs, legislative activities and administration of justice in India through its three departments namely the legislative department and the department of legal affairs and department of justice respectively.
• India Code by Ministry of Law and Justice, Legislative Department, contains all Central Acts of Parliament right from 1836 onwards. Each Act includes: Short Title, Enactment Date, Sections, Schedule and also Foot notes.
• Indian Courts by National Informatics Center, Government of India, provides a single point access to information related to the Supreme Court and all 21 High Courts and their Benches in India.
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs by Government of India, regulates corporate affairs in India through the Companies Act, 1956, 2013 and other allied Acts, Bills and Rules. MCA also protects investors and offers many important services to stakeholders. This gateway provide all services, guidance, and other corporate affairs related information.
• Ministry of External Affairs by Government of India, also known as Foreign Ministry which is responsible for the conduct of India's relations with foreign countries. This gateway provides statements, Interviews, Press Releases, full-text bilateral and multilateral treaties/ agreements/ MoU etc. related to foreign affairs.
• SUPLIS by National Informatics Center, Government of India, is a database of Supreme Court Case laws since 1950 along with parallel citations or equivalent citations and retrieval through famous/ popular names.
• The Judgment Information system (JUDIS) consists of the Judgments of the Supreme Court of India and several High Courts since 1950.
• JUDIS Institutional repository is the digital archive for Indian Courts judgments and case law.

People, organizations and other open web sources

• Lawnotes.in/Indian Acts is the digital archive, in chronologically order, for Indian Courts judgments and case law.
• The Public Library of Law (PLoL) powered by Fastcase, assemble law available for free scattered across many different sites -- all in one place. It includes cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals; cases from all 50 states back to 1997; Federal statutory law and codes from all 50 states; Regulations, court rules, constitutions, and more. PLoL also includes free links to paid content on Fastcase.
• casetext.com is a public legal research tool where you can search over 6 million judicial opinions, statutes, and regulations; read cases annotated by growing community of lawyers and law professors; browse community pages like criminal law, constitutional law, copyright law, ADR, Medical Law, Military Law, Tax Law and so on.. to find all the best commentary in practice areas; and start or join conversations about legal topics you're interested in.
• LawCite by AustLII (the Australasian Legal Information Institute), is a free international legal case and journal article citator. This portal basically is use to locate judgments and to see how these have been subsequently dealt with and commented upon or to see where journal articles have been cited.
• Constitution Finder by the University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law, is a searchable database that providing links and in some instances copies of Constitutions from around the world.

* Global Library does not invite reliance upon or accept responsibility for, the information these web portals provides. Kindly make sure about the authenticity of the sources.   

Subject Guides at other Library websites

• A Guide to India’s Legal Research and Legal System/ Dr. Rakesh Kumar Srivastava Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law
• An introduction to legal research in the jurisdiction of India/ Dr. Priya Rai Institute of Advance Legal studies, School of Advance Study, University of London
• Guide to Indian Laws/ V. Ramakrishnan
• India Legal Research Guide: Case Law/ Sunil Rao University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Research Guide: Customary Law in India/ Tariq Ahmad Library of Congress
• Guide to International and Foreign Law Research University of South Carolina 
• India : Legal Resources Bodlein Libraries, University of Oxford 
• Indian Law Research Guide : Introductio to Indian Legal System and Legal Research by Robin Gardner, the University of Melbourne
• Indian Law Guide by Michelle Pearse, Harvard Law School Library

Related Resource Pages

• Civil Procedure and Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Treaties, Conventions and Agreements

Acknowledgements

Staff of Global Library gratefully acknowledge contribution of Mr. Buddhi Prakash Chauhan, Chief Librarian & Additional Registrar for his leadership in preparation of this Resource Guide.