Ecourts Case Scraper

An Apify Actor for scraping court case details from the eCourts.gov.in portal using Playwright and OCR technology. This scraper extracts comprehensive case information including basic details, case status, parties involved, legal acts, FIR details, and complete case history.

Features

• OCR-Powered Captcha Solving: Uses Tesseract.js to automatically solve captcha images
• Comprehensive Data Extraction: Scrapes all available case information from eCourts portal
• Robust Error Handling: Automatic retry logic for failed captcha attempts
• Structured JSON Output: Well-formatted data with proper data types
• Browser Automation: Headless Playwright browser for reliable scraping
• Apify Integration: Full Apify platform support with dataset storage

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
caseNos	Array	Yes	["KARC010037582023", "KABC010006152020"]	Array of CNR (Case Number) strings to scrape
maxCaptchaRetries	Integer	No	5	Maximum number of attempts to solve captcha (1-10)

Input Schema Example

{
  "caseNos": ["KARC010037582023", "KABC010006152020"],
  "maxCaptchaRetries": 5
}

Output Schema

The scraper outputs structured JSON data for each case. Below is the complete output schema:

Field	Type	Description
case_no	String	The CNR (Case Number) that was scraped
success	Boolean	Whether the scraping was successful
basic_details	Object	Basic case information
case_status	Object	Current case status and court details
petitioner_advocate	Array	List of petitioners/advocates
respondent_advocate	Array	List of respondents/accused persons
acts	Array	Legal acts and sections applicable
fir_details	Object	FIR (First Information Report) details
case_history	Array	Complete case history with all hearings
interim_orders	Array	Interim court orders (if any)
final_orders	Array	Final court orders/judgments (if any)

Detailed Output Structure

Basic Details Object

{
  "Case Type": "SPL.C - SPECIAL CASES",
  "Filing Number": "849/2023",
  "Filing Date": "05-10-2023",
  "Registration Number": "778/2023",
  "Registration Date:": "06-10-2023"
}

Case Status Object

{
  "First Hearing Date": "06th October 2023",
  "Next Hearing Date": "10th November 2025",
  "Case Stage": "APPEARANCE OF ACCUSSED",
  "Court Number and Judge": "454-ADDL DISTRICT AND SESSIONS JUDGE"
}

Acts Array

[
  {
    "act": "INDIAN PENAL CODE",
    "section": "467, 468, 471, 420, R/W"
  },
  {
    "act": "Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act",
    "section": "3(1)(4)"
  }
]

FIR Details Object

{
  "Police Station": "RAICHUR WEST PS",
  "FIR Number": "0113",
  "Year": "2016"
}

Case History Array (Each entry contains)

{
  "court_code": "1",
  "state_code": "6",
  "dist_code": "undefined",
  "nextdate1": "20240118",
  "case_number1": "KARC010037582023",
  "unknown_param": "3",
  "disposal_flag": "Pending",
  "businessDate": "06-10-2023",
  "court_no": "454",
  "national_court_code": "KARC01",
  "search_by": "cnr",
  "srno": "1",
  "judge": "ADDL DISTRICT AND SESSIONS JUDGE",
  "business_on_date": "06-10-2023",
  "hearing_date": "18-01-2024",
  "purpose": "APPEARANCE OF ACCUSSED"
}

Technical Details

OCR Implementation

• Library: Tesseract.js for client-side OCR
• Language: English text recognition
• Retry Logic: Up to 5 attempts per case with fresh captcha images
• Accuracy: Handles various captcha styles from eCourts portal

Browser Automation

• Framework: Playwright with Chromium
• Mode: Headless operation for server environments
• Configuration: Optimized for anti-detection and performance
• Session Management: Automatic cookie and session handling

Data Processing

• Parsing: HTML parsing with DOM manipulation
• Validation: Comprehensive error checking and validation
• Formatting: Consistent JSON structure across all outputs
• Logging: Detailed logging for debugging and monitoring

Error Handling

• Network Issues: Automatic retries with exponential backoff
• Captcha Failures: Fresh captcha generation and OCR retry
• Data Validation: Schema validation and error reporting
• Graceful Degradation: Partial data collection on failures

Sample Output

{
	"case_no": "KABC010006152020",
	"success": true,
	"basic_details": {
		"Case Type": "SPL.C - SPECIAL CASES",
		"Filing Number": "7/2020",
		"Filing Date": "06-01-2020",
		"Registration Number": "7/2020",
		"Registration Date:": "06-01-2020"
	},
	"case_status": {
		"First Hearing Date": "06th February 2020",
		"Next Hearing Date": "08th October 2025",
		"Case Stage": "APPEARANCE OF ACCUSSED",
		"Court Number and Judge": "33-CCH34 XXXII ADDL. CITY CIVIL AND SESSIONS JUDGE"
	},
	"petitioner_advocate": [
		"MADIWALA PS (EOD,CID)   Advocate- P"
	],
	"respondent_advocate": [
		"A1 M/S DREAMS INFRA INDIA LTD COMPANY",
		"A2 RANI SHEIKH ALIAS ISHA ALIAS AYISHA ALIAS DISHA CHOWDHARY",
		"A3 SACHIN NAYAK ALIAS YOGESH CHOWDHARY ALIAS SACHIN S NAYAK ALIAS SUMANTH KUMAR DAS",
		"A4 MANDEEP KAUR",
		"A5 ANOOP K M",
		"A6 PANKAJ KUMAR SINGH",
		"A7 S LOKESH",
		"A8 SADHANA RANA",
		"A9 R AMARNATH",
		"A10 JAYASHANKAR",
		"A11 A VENKATESH",
		"A12 SANJAY",
		"A13 MANOHAR"
	],
	"acts": [
		{
			"act": "INDIAN PENAL CODE",
			"section": "403,406,409,419,420,465,467,468,471,R/W 120B"
		},
		{
			"act": "KPIDFE Act 2004",
			"section": "9"
		}
	],
	"fir_details": {},
	"case_history": [
		{
			"court_code": "3",
			"state_code": "20",
			"dist_code": "undefined",
			"nextdate1": "20200309",
			"case_number1": "KABC010006152020",
			"unknown_param": "3",
			"disposal_flag": "Pending",
			"businessDate": "06-02-2020",
			"court_no": "1",
			"national_court_code": "KABC01",
			"search_by": "cnr",
			"srno": "1",
			"judge": "PRL. CITY CIVIL AND  SESSIONS JUDGE - CCH-1",
			"hearing_date": "09-03-2020",
			"purpose": "APPEARANCE OF ACCUSSED"
		}
	],
	"final_orders": [
		{
			"order_number": "6",
			"order_date": "16-09-2022",
			"order_details": "Plea",
			"order_details_onclick": "displayPdf('home/display_pdf&normal_v=1&case_val=SPL.C/0000007/2020&cCode=3&appFlag=&filename=/orders/2020/206300000072020_6.pdf&court_code=3')"
		}
	]
}

Support

For issues and questions:

• Check the logs in storage/logs/ directory
• Review the Apify Actor logs in the platform
• Ensure case numbers are valid CNR format
• Email : lakshmanan.w3dev@gmail.com