Every advocate asking for a judge-wise list is really asking one question: which courtroom do I stand in, and how far down am I.
A judge-wise cause list is the day's cause list grouped by the bench hearing each matter, rather than by case type or number. It is the form most High Courts publish in, because the court's day is organised by courtroom: each judge or Division Bench gets its own list, with its own item numbers running from one. Your matter appears under exactly one bench, and its item number only means anything within that list.
A High Court does not sit as one body. On any given day it sits as a number of separate courts — single judges and Division Benches — each in its own room, working through its own list at its own pace.
So the cause list is published the way the day is actually run: grouped by bench. Court 1 has a list, Court 12 has a list, and each of them starts at item 1. That is what "judge-wise" means. It is not an alternative view of the list; for most High Courts it is the list.
The practical consequence catches people out constantly: an item number is meaningless without the bench it belongs to. Item 40 before Court 3 and item 40 before Court 17 are two unrelated positions in two unrelated days. Reading the right number against the wrong bench is the most common way an advocate mistimes a hearing.
A judge-wise list gives you three things that matter: the bench — the judge or judges sitting, and the court number they sit in; the item number your matter carries within that bench's list; and the order of business, since most lists put fresh matters, applications and regular hearings in distinct blocks rather than one continuous run.
That last point is why item 60 is not always twice as far away as item 30. A bench may move through thirty fresh matters in an hour and then sit on a single regular hearing until it rises. The list tells you where you are; only the display board tells you how fast the day is actually moving.
Benches also change. Rosters are revised, judges are elevated, transferred or on leave, and a matter can be released from one bench to another between hearings. A bench you memorised last month is not a bench you can rely on this month.
Here is the circular part. A judge-wise list is organised by bench, so to read it you need to know your bench. But the whole reason you are opening the list is to find out where your matter has been placed.
In practice advocates solve this by brute force — opening each bench's list in turn and searching for a party name — which works, and costs an evening every evening. Party and advocate names are typed by hand, so spellings vary and a search that finds nothing is not proof of an absence.
A CNR removes the circularity entirely. It is exact, it is permanent, and it does not care which bench is hearing the matter this month — you search the matter, and the bench comes back as part of the answer rather than being something you needed in advance.
The other direction is advocate-wise: everything listed against your own name, across every bench, in one view. Between the two, the bench stops being something you have to guess at.
Judge-wise lists are asked about most often at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which serves Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh from one building at Chandigarh and runs a large number of benches simultaneously. With that many courts sitting at once, the bench grouping is the only practical way to read the day.
The same shape holds at the Gujarat High Court, the Delhi High Court and the Bombay High Court, where the benches are split across four sittings as well as across courtrooms.
Lawgger carries judge-wise lists for all 25 High Courts, the Supreme Court and the tribunals — 527 courts, 426 benches — alongside around 700 district courts. Save a matter once and you are told which bench, which item, the evening the list is published.
It is the day's cause list grouped by the bench hearing each matter, rather than by case type or case number. Each judge or Division Bench gets its own list with its own item numbers starting from one, mirroring the way the court's day is actually run across separate courtrooms.
If you know the bench, open that bench's list and find your item number. If you do not, searching by CNR or case number is exact and returns the bench as part of the answer. Party and advocate name search works but is approximate, because names are typed by hand and spellings vary.
No, and this is the most common mistake. Each bench's list restarts its numbering at item 1, so item 40 before one court has no relationship to item 40 before another. An item number is only meaningful together with the bench it belongs to.
The cause list names the bench against each matter, so the list itself is the answer for that day. Between hearings a matter can be released to a different bench, and rosters are revised periodically, so a bench is not something to assume from last time.
For most High Courts they are the same document. The daily list is published grouped by bench, because that is how the court sits. Some courts also publish a consolidated view and separate advance and supplementary lists.
Yes. Save the matter by CNR in the Lawgger app and you are told when it is listed, with the bench, the court number and the item, the evening the list is published — including when a supplementary list adds it later.
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Lawgger is software for advocates. It is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Court information is shown as published in official court records.
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