To check family court case status online, open the eCourts portal at services.ecourts.gov.in, select your state and district, choose the family court establishment, and search by case number, CNR number, or party name. You can also add the case to India Case Status and receive an alert on WhatsApp or email whenever the official court record changes.
What Cases Do Family Courts Handle in India?#
Family courts are specialised courts created under the Family Courts Act, 1984 to deal with disputes relating to marriage and family. Under Section 7 of the Act, a family court has jurisdiction over:
- Divorce and judicial separation — petitions under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA) or the Special Marriage Act, 1954 (SMA), including mutual-consent divorce under Section 13B HMA and Section 28 SMA
- Restitution of conjugal rights — Section 9 HMA
- Nullity of marriage — declarations that a marriage is void or voidable
- Maintenance — applications under Section 125 CrPC, now Section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 for matters filed on or after 1 July 2024
- Child custody and guardianship — petitions under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
- Property disputes between spouses and suits for declaration of marital status or legitimacy of a child
The Act mandates a family court in every city with a population above one million, and most states have extended them to smaller districts too. The practical point for litigants: family courts are district-level court establishments, so they appear on the eCourts portal exactly like civil and criminal courts — and their cases can be checked and tracked the same way.
How to Check Family Court Case Status on eCourts (Step by Step)#
Search by Case Number
- 1Open the eCourts services portal at services.ecourts.gov.in and click Case Status.
- 2Select your State and District from the dropdowns.
- 3Under court establishment, pick the family court — it usually appears as "Family Court" or "Principal Judge, Family Court" alongside the district and sessions court options.
- 4Choose the Case Number tab, then select the case type (HMA, GWA, MAINT, etc.), enter the case number and year.
- 5Enter the CAPTCHA characters shown on screen and click Go.
- 6Click View against the matching result to open the full case history — parties, filing date, next hearing date, stage, and orders.
Search by CNR Number (Fastest Method)
Every case in the eCourts system has a unique 16-character CNR number (for example, DLSW01-001234-2024). If you have it — it is printed on court filings and case-information printouts — paste it into the CNR Search box on the portal, complete the CAPTCHA, and the case opens directly with no dropdowns to navigate.
Search by Party Name
If you only know the names — common in maintenance and custody disputes where one party files without informing the other — use the Party Name tab:
- 1Select state, district and the family court establishment as above.
- 2Enter the petitioner's or respondent's name (surname first often works better in some states).
- 3Choose the case registration year if known, and select Pending or Disposed.
- 4Complete the CAPTCHA and review the list of matching cases.
Common names return long lists, so combine the name with the year and check the opposite party's name in the results to confirm you have the right matter.
Family Court Case Type Abbreviations#
The case type dropdown on eCourts uses short codes that vary slightly by state. These are the ones you will see most often in family court matters:
| Case Type Code | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| HMA | Petitions under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 — divorce, restitution, judicial separation |
| SMA | Petitions under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 |
| MAT / M.J. | Matrimonial petitions (label used in some states instead of HMA) |
| GWA / G&W | Guardianship and custody under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 |
| MAINT / Crl.Misc. | Maintenance under Section 125 CrPC / Section 144 BNSS |
| HAMA | Maintenance and adoption matters under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 |
If you cannot find your case under one code, try the neighbouring ones — a maintenance application, for instance, may be registered as MAINT in one district and Crl.Misc. in another.
What the Status Field Actually Tells You#
Once the case opens, the Case Status section shows whether the matter is *Pending* or *Disposed*, the current stage (Notice, Written Statement, Evidence, Arguments, Orders), the next hearing date, and the court number and judge. Interim orders — maintenance pendente lite, visitation arrangements, injunctions — appear in the Orders tab with downloadable PDFs where the court has uploaded them.
If a status term confuses you — "Awaiting Notice", "Steps", "Part Heard" — our guide to what court case statuses mean decodes the full vocabulary.
Family Courts in Major Cities#
Delhi
Delhi's family courts sit inside the district court complexes — Dwarka, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Tis Hazari and Patiala House — with each complex serving designated districts. The Dwarka Courts Complex, for example, houses the family courts for Delhi's South-West district. You can track matters across all of them from one dashboard: see the Dwarka court case status page or the broader Delhi district court tracking page.
Mumbai
Mumbai's principal family court sits at Bandra (East), with additional family courts across the Mumbai suburban district. These establishments are searchable on eCourts under the Mumbai districts — details on the Mumbai district court case tracking page.
Everywhere Else
Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Lucknow and every other city with a family court follows the same pattern: the family court is an establishment within the district, searchable on eCourts and trackable on India Case Status. The dedicated family court case status page covers the full picture.
Checking Manually vs Getting Alerts Automatically#
Manual checking works, but family court matters expose its weaknesses quickly:
- Dates move. Family courts carry heavy boards, and hearings are routinely adjourned or preponed. The date you noted last month may no longer be correct.
- Every check means re-entering everything. State, district, establishment, case type, number, CAPTCHA — each time, on a portal that can be slow during court hours.
- Both sides need to stay informed. In maintenance and custody matters, a missed hearing can mean an ex-parte order.
- Family members abroad are often the real stakeholders. NRIs with a pending divorce or custody matter in India cannot keep calling home for updates.
India Case Status removes the routine: add the case once, and the platform monitors it continuously against the official court record. When the record changes — a new hearing date, a status change, an order PDF uploaded — an alert goes out on WhatsApp and email, in your choice of 10 Indian languages. The dashboard keeps the full case history, order archive and hearing calendar in one place, and you can share a read-only view with a family member or client.
Track Your Family Court Case Automatically#
Whether it is a divorce petition, a Section 125 CrPC maintenance application, or a custody battle under the Guardians and Wards Act, the case lives on the official record — and the record changes between hearings. Add your family court case with just the case number, CNR or party name, and let the updates come to you instead.
Frequently Asked Questions#
How can I check my divorce case status online?
Open services.ecourts.gov.in, click Case Status, select your state and district, and choose the family court establishment. Search using the HMA or SMA case number, the 16-character CNR number, or a party name. The result shows the next hearing date, current stage and any orders uploaded. You can also track the case on India Case Status and get alerted whenever it updates.
Can I check family court case status by name only?
Yes. The eCourts portal's Party Name search lets you find cases using just the petitioner's or respondent's name, filtered by state, district, family court establishment and year. Because common names return many results, verify the opposite party's name before relying on a result. This is the standard route when one spouse suspects a petition has been filed but has not yet received notice.
What is a CNR number and where do I find it?
The CNR (Case Number Record) is a unique 16-character identifier assigned to every case in the eCourts system — for example, MHMM01-012345-2024. It appears on court-issued documents, certified copies and case-information printouts. Searching by CNR is the fastest way to pull up a family court case because it skips all the state, district and case-type dropdowns.
Are family court proceedings public? Can anyone see my case details?
Family court proceedings can be held in camera under Section 11 of the Family Courts Act, 1984, and pleadings or evidence are not published online. What appears on eCourts is procedural metadata — case number, parties, hearing dates, stage and uploaded orders. Some courts additionally mask party names in matrimonial matters, so the public footprint of a family case is limited.
How do I check the status of a maintenance case under Section 125 CrPC?
Maintenance applications are usually registered under a MAINT or Crl.Misc. case type in the family court (or before a Magistrate where no family court exists). Search on eCourts with that case type and number, or by party name. Note that matters filed on or after 1 July 2024 proceed under Section 144 BNSS, which replaced Section 125 CrPC, though older cases keep their original numbering.
How often should I check my family court case status?
Hearing dates in family courts change often — adjournments, judge unavailability and board overflow are routine. Rather than checking the portal repeatedly, set up tracking once so alerts arrive when the official record actually changes. That way a preponed hearing, a fresh order or a status change reaches you without daily portal visits, which matters most in time-sensitive maintenance and custody disputes.
