Supreme Court Case Search Bangladesh 2026: Case Status, Cause Lists and Certified Copies

Supreme court case search Bangladesh: tracking, listing and copies in 2026

A supreme court case search Bangladesh lawyers and litigants can run in under a minute now answers most of the questions that once required a trip to the Registry: which bench has the file, what happened at the last listing, whether a Rule was issued, and whether the judgment has been uploaded. The same website publishes the daily cause list of every High Court Division bench and the Appellate Division, so a party can see the night before whether the matter is in tomorrow's list and at what item number.

Online information is not the whole job. A matter still has to be mentioned to reach a bench, and the order that results still has to be obtained as a certified copy before it can be filed, executed or relied on in another court. This guide takes the practical route through all of it: searching the High Court Division and Appellate Division, reading status entries and cause lists, mentioning, applying for certified and urgent copies under the court rules, the 2026 e-services and virtual-court position, and tracking district court cases through the e-cause list and the Amar Adalat app.

Summary: A supreme court case search Bangladesh litigants run on supremecourt.gov.bd shows the case history, daily cause list entries and uploaded judgments. Search by division, case type, number and year, or by party name or lower court case number. Read the cause list the evening before each listing, mention the matter by slip if it is not listed, and apply to the Copying Section for a certified copy the day an order is made: ordinary copies are due on the fifth day after stamps and folios are filed, urgent copies within 72 hours.

Key point: An online case history or a downloaded judgment PDF tells you what happened, but it is not a certified copy. Under the High Court Division Rules, a certified copy must bear the court's seal and a certificate under section 76 of the Evidence Act 1872, signed by an authorised officer. Time spent waiting to apply for that copy is not automatically excluded from limitation.

At a glance

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Table of Contents

Supreme court case search Bangladesh: what the system covers

The Supreme Court has two divisions, and its website treats them separately. The High Court Division hears writ petitions, civil and criminal appeals and revisions, company and admiralty matters, bail and quashing applications. The Appellate Division hears civil and criminal petitions for leave to appeal, appeals, review petitions and contempt matters. Each division has its own case types, its own cause lists and its own Registry, so the first decision in any supreme court case search Bangladesh users make is which division holds the file.

The public tools sit on one site. The Case Search page searches both divisions.[1] Separate menus publish the High Court Division daily cause list and the Appellate Division cause list, together with judgments, orders, the monthly list and vacation cause lists.[2] [3] [8] The court rules for both divisions are published as PDFs on the same site, and they govern how lists are prepared, how matters are mentioned and how copies are issued.[4] [7]

Why tracking matters in 2026

Volume is the reason disciplined tracking pays. According to Supreme Court figures reported on 15 September 2026, the High Court Division had 646,276 cases pending on 31 August 2026 after disposing of 87,596 in eight months, and the Appellate Division had 39,554 pending.[14] In lists of that size, a matter that drops out of a bench's list, or that is shown as "not today" several times, can lose months unless someone notices and acts.

Who should run the search

The Advocate-on-Record or the instructing advocate's clerk normally tracks the list day by day. Clients, in-house counsel and foreign parties increasingly run their own checks, which is sensible: the case history is public, and knowing the last result lets a client ask the right question. What a client cannot do online is change anything. Listing, mentioning, filing requisites and obtaining copies all need an advocate or an authorised agent acting through the Sections and Bench Officers.

How to run a supreme court case search Bangladesh by case number

The fastest route is "Search by Number". The form asks for the division, a case category, the case type, the case number and the year; the last three are mandatory.[1] Selecting the division loads its categories. For the High Court Division the categories are Civil Appeal, Civil Revision, Criminal Cases (HD), Original Cases and Writ Cases. For the Appellate Division they are Civil Cases, Contempt Cases, Criminal Cases (AD) and Jail Cases.[1]

Choosing the right case type

Each category then loads specific case types, and choosing the wrong one is the most common reason a search returns nothing. Under Writ Cases, for example, "Writ Petition" and "In re: Writ Petition" are separate types, alongside contempt petitions, review petitions, suo motu Rules and the "VC" types created for virtual-court filings. Under the Appellate Division's Civil Cases the types are Civil Appeal, Civil Petition, Civil Miscellaneous Petition and Civil Review Petition.[1] A civil petition for leave to appeal is searched as a Civil Petition; once leave is granted, the case is registered as a civil appeal and searched under that type.[7]

Number, year and the result list

Once the case type is set, enter the case number without prefixes and the four-digit year of registration, not the year of the hearing. The search returns a short "List of Found Cases" with a link for each match; clicking it opens the full case history in a new window.[1] If a writ petition was moved but not yet registered under its final case type when the bench rose, look for it as an "In re" item, discussed below. If nothing appears, confirm the number on the filing slip or the order sheet before assuming the record is missing.

Searching by party or lower court case number

"Search by Other Fields" lets you search a division by petitioner, respondent or previous court case number, and at least one field must be completed.[1] Party search is useful when the number is unknown, but it is a text match: a search for a common name can return well over a hundred cases going back many years, with spellings that vary from entry to entry. Narrow it by adding the respondent, or by searching the lower court suit or appeal number. For High Court cases, the site instructs users to put a colon after the case type and a slash between the case number and year.[1]

What the public search will not do

The public form has no field for the advocate's name. Advocates manage their own matters through a separate log-in system, listed on the site as the case filing system for lawyers.[8] A third form searches by tender number, used for tender-related cases.[1] For a portfolio of cases, keep a register of division, type, number and year for each matter: it makes every later supreme court case search Bangladesh staff run quicker and more reliable than name searches.

Reading the case history and status entries

The case history window has three parts: the cause list history, basic information and judgments and orders.[1] The cause list history is numbered from the first listing upward and shows, for each hearing, the date, the court room (for example "Main Building Court No. 12" or "Annex Building Court No. 18"), the judges constituting the bench and the result recorded that day. Basic information gives the parties, their lawyers and any related case. The final section lists uploaded judgment or order files with their upload date, or states that no file has been uploaded.

Common High Court Division entries

Results are short, and their meaning depends on the stage. A typical writ history on the site moves from "Rule only" at the motion stage, to "Fixed for hearing", "Heard in part" and "Stand over 2 (two) weeks", then "Hearing concluded, judgment on" a stated date and finally "Absolute" when the Rule is made absolute.[1] A listing with a blank result usually means the matter was in the list but not reached, or that the result was not entered. Treat a run of blank entries as a warning that the matter needs to be mentioned.

Appellate Division and Chamber Judge entries

Appellate Division histories use their own shorthand. Chamber Judge results seen on the site include "Not today", "P.o.", "Say and fixed on" a date, "Status quo and fixed on" a date, "Adjourned till after vacation" and "Disposed of".[1] [3] An entry such as "Stay" or "Status quo" in the case history records interim relief, but the operative terms are in the signed order, not the summary. Before you act on an interim order, obtain the order itself; our guide to the stay order in Bangladesh courts explains how such orders are framed and extended.

Uploaded judgments are not certified copies

Many High Court Division judgments now appear as PDFs in the case history, and the court publishes judgments and orders by division.[8] These files are invaluable for reading the reasoning early. They do not replace a certified copy. The High Court Division Rules require a certified copy to carry the seal of the court and a certificate that it is a true copy under section 76 of the Evidence Act 1872, signed in full by an authorised officer.[5] Courts, banks, land offices and foreign authorities will ask for that certified version.

The High Court Division daily cause list

The High Court Division daily cause list is published bench by bench. The bench list page shows, for a chosen date, each court room, the judges sitting and the bench's jurisdiction, with links to "List of Tomorrow" and an index.[2] Jurisdiction is set out in Bangla and can run to a paragraph: a single Division Bench may take urgent writ motions on VAT, customs, income tax and financial institution matters, trademark and patent appeals and customs appeals, while another takes anti-corruption and money-laundering criminal motions.[2] Read it before filing, because a motion moved before a bench without jurisdiction is wasted.

Finding your bench

Once a matter is pending, its case history shows the bench that last dealt with it, and that bench's daily cause list is where it will next appear. For a new motion, match the subject matter and value to the bench jurisdictions in the bench list. The page also reports, for each bench, the total number of cases in the day's list and how many have had results entered, which gives a rough sense of how far a heavy list is likely to get.[2] Each bench entry links to a printable cause list and a page-by-page view.

Reading an entry

Each entry carries an item number, the case number with type and year, and the short title of the parties. Items are grouped under stage headings. A recent list of a tax and writ bench, for example, ran under the headings "For Order", "Motion", "Motion" with earlier dates in brackets for carried-over motions, "Application" (from 12:30 PM) and "As to be mentioned".[2] The item number tells you roughly when the matter will be reached; the heading tells you what the bench will do with it. A matter under "For Order" is listed for an order, not for full argument.

"In re" items

When a bench cannot hear all the motions presented on a day, those not heard are included in its list the following day as "In re" items, with the parties' names and the filing advocate.[4] If the bench is reconstituted before hearing them, the Section registers them in an "In re" Register and places them before the Chief Justice for directions, and an "In re" matter has priority over a newly filed motion.[4] That is why so many entries in a motion list are prefixed "In re: Writ Petition".

The Appellate Division cause list

The Appellate Division Rules build its lists in tiers. The Registrar keeps a "ready list" of cases ready for hearing in each class, arranged year-wise in order of registration; from it the Registrar publishes at the end of each month a list of cases for the following month, then a weekly list, and at the end of each day a daily list for the following day, all subject to directions of the Chief Justice and the court.[7] A case can therefore be "ready" for a long time before it reaches a daily list.

Full Court, regular benches and the Chamber Judge

The online Appellate Division daily cause list page lists each court sitting on a date, its judges, and the total number of matters listed and attended.[3] Its cause list shows five columns: serial number, case number, parties, advocate and result. That advocate column is a practical advantage over the High Court Division printable list. The Chamber Judge list carries applications for stay, permission to swear affidavits and other urgent matters; a mid-October 2026 list included civil and criminal petitions with results ranging from "Permitted" and "Disposed of" to "Fixed on" a date in November.[3]

Vacations

The Appellate Division Rules allow the Chief Justice to nominate a judge before each vacation to hear matters requiring prompt attention, and to constitute vacation benches.[7] The site publishes separate vacation cause lists.[8] During vacation, expect many regular matters to be marked "Adjourned till after vacation" and plan urgent applications around the Chamber Judge's list. The procedure for leave petitions themselves is covered in our guide to the civil petition for leave to appeal in Bangladesh.

Mentioning a matter to get it into the list

A matter does not reach a High Court Division bench simply because it is pending. Chapter IVA of the High Court Division Rules provides that a party who wants a case included in the daily cause list for an order of an appropriate bench must file a Mention Slip during that bench's mention hour.[4] The Bench Officer gives it a serial number, signs and dates it, sends a requisition for the file to the Section before 3 p.m. and arranges for the case to be included in the list under the mentioned-matters heading.[4]

What the slip contains

The prescribed slip records the date of filing, the district, the case number and year, the short title of the parties, the purpose in brief and the name and signature of the advocate holding power or the person mentioning.[4] Keep the purpose precise: "for hearing of stay application", "for vacating ad interim order", "for order on service return". A vague slip invites an adjournment.

Writ motions and affidavit validity

New writ petitions follow a parallel route. The writ Section examines the petition, records it with a number and year, sends it for swearing the affidavit and gives the filer a slip so the matter can be mentioned before an appropriate bench; on the first working day of the week the Section sends the petition to the bench before which the mention slip was filed, though a bench may accept a slip on any day in urgency.[4]

Timing matters. A writ petition must be mentioned within 30 days after the affidavit is sworn, and civil and criminal motions must be filed within 45 days of the affidavit, failing which the affidavit lapses for that purpose.[4] The substantive steps are in our guide to the writ petition in Bangladesh.

After the Rule issues

When a Rule or Rule Nisi issues, the order fixes a return date and directs the petitioner to file requisites. Until the requisites are furnished, neither the Section nor any other department will deliver a copy of the order, certified or otherwise.[4] Clients waiting for "the order" often do not know this; filing requisites promptly is the quickest way to get the copy.

Certified copy from the Supreme Court: what it is and who can get one

Any supreme court case search Bangladesh users run will eventually lead to a document they need in certified form: a judgment for an appeal, an interim order for a bank, a decree for execution. The High Court Division Rules on copies, in Chapter XIII, govern the High Court Division; Orders IX and X of the Appellate Division Rules govern the Appellate Division.[5] [7]

Entitlement

A party who has appeared at any stage is entitled to a copy of the record, including exhibits finally accepted in evidence, and every advocate engaged in a case may obtain a copy of the whole or part of the proceedings on depositing the estimated cost.[5] A stranger to a case may obtain a copy of any judgment, decree or order once it is made, and copies of pleadings after decree, but not copies of exhibits without the consent of the party who produced them.[5] In the Appellate Division, a party who has appeared may search, inspect and obtain copies on payment of the prescribed fees; a non-party needs the court's permission on good cause shown.[7]

Certified, uncertified and photostat copies

Three forms matter in practice. A certified copy bears the court's seal and the section 76 certificate, signed in full by an authorised officer, and each sheet is initialled by the Assistant Registrar.[5] An uncertified copy is marked only "examined" and initialled by the examiner. A certified photostat copy, available under rule 38, is a photocopy that also carries the seal and certificate.[5] For filing in another court or with a public authority, insist on the certified form; the uncertified copy is for reading.

Why the copy drives deadlines

Appeals, leave petitions and reviews all require certified copies, and the time "requisite" for obtaining a copy is excluded in computing limitation only for the period the copy application was properly pending. The interaction is explained in our guides to the civil appeal in Bangladesh and the civil petition for leave to appeal. The practical rule is simple: apply for the certified copy on the day of the order.

Applying for a certified copy in the High Court Division

Applications go to the Superintendent of the Copying Section in Form No 24 (Civil), Appendix I, giving full particulars and stating whether the copy is urgent and whether it is to be prepared on 100-gram legal-size offset paper or on government folios.[5] Forms cost Tk 4 per sheet. Ordinary applications are accepted on any court day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.; applications carrying the urgent fee may be made at any time during office hours.[5]

Estimate, folios and stamps

The application is not complete until the court-fee stamps and folios or offset paper have been supplied in full.[5] Once the application is granted, the Copying Section must work out the stamps and paper required during the same day or by the following day, and notify the amount in Form No 25 not later than the next day.[5] If the stamps and paper are not filed within seven days of that notification, the application is rejected and a fresh one must be filed.[5] Watch the notification board or have a clerk check daily: a rejected application starts the process again.

Copy fees

The charge is Tk 2 for every 150 English or 200 Bangla words or part, paid through Tk 2 stamp sheets or court-fee stamps, plus an authentication fee of Tk 5 per document fixed on the first page; three figures count as one word.[5] A searching fee of Tk 5 applies if the record has gone to the record room, with one fee covering several copies from the same record in one application.[5] For certified photostat copies, the fees are Tk 10 (ordinary) or Tk 15 (urgent) per application, Tk 3 per page, and authentication of Tk 5 for a judgment, Tk 10 for a decree and Tk 5 for other documents.[5]

Collection and the dates on the copy

When the stamps and paper are filed, the date is noted on the application and the Copying Section records the date the copy will be ready on the counterfoil, which the applicant keeps and must produce to collect.[5] Every copy of a decree, judgment or order records the date of application, the date stamps and paper were notified and delivered, the date the copy was ready and the date it was handed over.[5] Those dates prove the time excluded for limitation. Uncollected copies and unused folios are destroyed if not claimed by the last day of the month after the copy was ready.[5]

Urgent copies and realistic timelines

In ordinary circumstances a copy must be furnished not later than 1 p.m. on the fifth day after the stamps and paper are filed.[5] An urgent copy is one required before three days have expired from the application. It carries an extra fee of Tk 10 per page, paid as a court-fee stamp affixed to the application.

On an urgent application, the Copying Section sends the requisition to the Bench Officer or Section, which must estimate stamps and folios within three hours and explain any delay in writing. Once the estimate is met, the Copying Section is to supply the copy within 72 hours, except in very exceptional cases.[5] Certified photostat copies are due within one week on an ordinary application and three days on an urgent one.[5]

Where time is lost in practice

The rules are tighter than the reality. A Dhaka Tribune investigation in November 2025 reported that a single order copy in the Supreme Court can pass through more than a dozen desks, and that a High Court Division order moves through typing, signing, entry, checking, scanning and dispatch, which can take up to ten days even in fast-tracked bail matters.[13] The same report noted that bail orders can now be sent online directly to prisons.[13]

Keeping the copy moving

Three habits shorten the wait. First, apply on the day the order is signed and pay the urgent fee where a deadline or enforcement step depends on it. Second, file requisites in writ matters immediately, since no copy of a Rule issuing order is released until they are in.[4] Third, escalate in writing: the rules require the Assistant Registrar to monitor urgent copies and certify compliance in the copy register.[5] Payments outside the rules are neither necessary nor safe; the Supreme Court's helplines and complaint register exist for delay.[8]

Copies from the Appellate Division

The Appellate Division Rules require certified copies of the judgment, decree or order to be furnished to the parties on application and at their expense.[7] Copies may be certified by any officer authorised by the Registrar, and the seal may be affixed to a certified copy only under the written authority of the Registrar, an Additional Registrar, or a Deputy or Assistant Registrar so authorised.[7] The fee schedule to the Rules charges a fee for every certified copy in addition to folio charges, and a per-folio rate for copies; confirm the current amounts with the Registry when applying.[7]

Copies the Appellate Division itself requires

The Appellate Division is also a heavy consumer of High Court Division copies. A leave petition must be lodged with the impugned judgment, decree or order, one copy of which is certified, and once leave is granted a certified copy of the High Court Division decree must be filed within 15 days.[7] Order the judgment and decree together. When an appeal or leave petition is decided, the Registrar sends a certified copy of the order to the court below, but that does not supply the parties: each side must still apply for its own copy.[7]

E-services and virtual courts in 2026

Beyond case search and cause lists, the Supreme Court site links to a case filing system for lawyers, an online bail confirmation service, judgments and orders by division, the Supreme Court Online Bulletin law reports, an online complaint register and helpline numbers.[8] Bail confirmation runs through a registered log-in at bail.supremecourt.gov.bd, operated by the court's ICT Department.[8] None of these services yet produces a certified copy online; certification remains a Copying Section function under the rules.[5]

Virtual hearings

Virtual proceedings have a statutory base in the Use of Information Technology by Courts Act 2020, under which the Supreme Court ran virtual hearings in 2020 and 2021, and the search menus still carry "VC" case types such as VC Writ Petition.[1] [6]

In April 2026 the Chief Justice decided to move High Court Division work online two days a week to save fuel and electricity, and the Supreme Court notified virtual sittings every Wednesday and Thursday in both divisions from 22 April.[6] After protests from lawyers, notices issued in early May 2026 suspended the arrangement in both divisions, including the chamber courts, and proceedings returned to in-person hearings on all working days.[12] Check the latest notice before assuming a hearing will be remote.

Who does what

Knowing which office holds which function saves days when a matter stalls.

What is coming

In April 2026 the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Md Asaduzzaman, told Parliament that e-bail bond management was running in nine districts, e-family courts in two, online cause lists were live and information and service centres had been set up at all Chief Judicial Magistrate courts; a proposed e-Judiciary project to unify filing and document preservation on one platform was under review by the Planning Commission.[11] Until that project is approved and delivered, case tracking in Bangladesh runs on separate systems for the Supreme Court and the subordinate courts.

District court case search: the e-cause list and Amar Adalat

Subordinate court cases do not appear in any supreme court case search Bangladesh users run on the Supreme Court site. Their dates and orders are published through the Law and Justice Division's e-cause list at causelist.judiciary.gov.bd, which offers a case search and a court search.[9] The portal tells users they can also get e-cause list information on a mobile phone by downloading the "Amar Adalat" app or by calling the toll-free number 333.[9]

How the district search works

The online case list, a judicial monitoring dashboard and the Amar Adalat (MyCourt) app were launched in June 2022 by the Law and Justice Division with UNDP and a2i support. Users select the division, district and court to see the latest order, next date and case status, and the app is available on Google Play to judges, lawyers and the public.[10] In practice, search by the court and the case number shown on the order sheet; party names in subordinate court records are inconsistently spelled.

Judgments and orders of subordinate courts

The Supreme Court site also links to a separate portal for subordinate court judgments and orders at decision.bdcourts.gov.bd, searchable by division, district, court and date of decision.[8] As with Supreme Court PDFs, a downloaded order is a reading copy. A certified copy for an appeal, revision or execution case must still be obtained from the copying section of the district court concerned. Where a district court order is to be challenged in the High Court Division, the motion must ordinarily be accompanied by a certified copy of the judgment or order under challenge.[4]

Step-by-step: tracking a matter from listing to certified copy

The sequence below is how we run a supreme court case search Bangladesh clients can rely on, from the first listing to a certified copy in hand.

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For criminal matters the same tracking discipline applies to bail and quashing applications. See our guides to High Court bail in Bangladesh and quashing proceedings under section 561A.

Mistakes to avoid

Searching under the wrong case type. "Writ Petition", "In re: Writ Petition" and "VC Writ Petition" are separate types, as are Civil Petition and Civil Appeal in the Appellate Division. A failed supreme court case search Bangladesh users run is usually a case-type error, not a missing record.[1]

Reading only today's list. Check the next day's daily cause list the evening before. Items move between headings and benches, and a matter not reached under "Motion" may reappear as an "In re" item the next day.[2] [4]

Treating a summary result in the case history as the order. "Stay" or "Status quo" in the history does not show the terms, duration or conditions. Obtain the order.

Letting the affidavit expire. A writ petition not mentioned within 30 days of the affidavit, or a civil or criminal motion not filed within 45 days, needs a fresh affidavit.[4]

Missing the copy notification. Stamps and folios notified by the Copying Section must be filed within seven days of notification or the copy application is rejected.[5]

Filing a PDF instead of a certified copy. Courts and authorities expect the sealed, section 76 certified copy.[5]

Using the Supreme Court search for a district case. Subordinate court matters are on the e-cause list and Amar Adalat, not supremecourt.gov.bd.[9]

How TRW manages Supreme Court tracking

For institutional clients with many matters, the value lies in the discipline: a register of every case number and type, daily list checks, prompt mention slips, copy applications on the day of each order and escalation when copies stall. TRW's constitutional and writ litigation practice runs that process for writ, civil, criminal and appellate matters, and for revisions under our civil revision work. A supreme court case search Bangladesh clients run themselves is a good first check; a managed docket makes sure nothing falls out of the list.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check my case status in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh?

A supreme court case search Bangladesh users run starts on the Case Search page of supremecourt.gov.bd. Select the division, category and case type, enter the number and four-digit year, and open the case history from the result list.[1]

Can I search a High Court case by party name?

Yes. "Search by Other Fields" accepts petitioner, respondent or previous court case number for either division. Results are text matches, so add a second field to narrow them.[1]

Can I search by the advocate's name?

Not on the public form. Advocates manage their matters through the court's separate log-in case filing system for lawyers.[1] [8]

What does "In re" mean in the daily cause list?

It marks a motion presented to a bench but not heard that day, carried into the next day's list. "In re" matters have priority over newly filed motions.[4]

How do I get my case into tomorrow's list?

File a Mention Slip during the bench's mention hour. The Bench Officer requisitions the file before 3 p.m. and includes it under the mentioned-matters heading.[4]

How much does a certified copy cost in the High Court Division?

The Copying Section charges Tk 2 for every 150 English or 200 Bangla words or part, plus a Tk 5 authentication fee per document, and a Tk 5 searching fee if the record is in the record room. Urgent copies cost Tk 10 extra per page.[5]

How long does a certified copy take?

Under the rules, the Copying Section must deliver an ordinary copy by 1 p.m. on the fifth day after stamps and paper are filed, and an urgent copy within 72 hours of meeting the estimate. Delays in practice can be longer.[5] [13]

Is a judgment downloaded from the Supreme Court website valid as a certified copy?

No. A certified copy must bear the court seal and a section 76 Evidence Act certificate signed by an authorised officer.[5]

Are Supreme Court hearings virtual in 2026?

Wednesday and Thursday virtual sittings began on 22 April 2026 but were suspended in early May 2026, and hearings returned to in-person on all working days. Check current notices.[12]

How do I check a district court case online?

Use the e-cause list at causelist.judiciary.gov.bd, the Amar Adalat app, or call 333 toll-free.[9]