indiacode.nic.in APIindiacode.nic.in ↗
Search and retrieve Indian Acts, sections, and subordinate legislation from indiacode.nic.in. 6 endpoints covering Central Acts, State Acts, and section text.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/e9bac3eb-7736-4209-8c66-c21f50945510/search_acts?rpp=3&type=acts&query=tax&start=0' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search for Acts, Sections, or Subordinate Legislations by keyword.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| rpp | integer | Results per page |
| type | string | Search type: acts, section, or subordinate |
| queryrequired | string | Search keyword |
| start | integer | Pagination offset |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"rpp": "integer",
"start": "integer",
"results": "array",
"total_results": "integer"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"rpp": 3,
"start": 0,
"results": [
{
"url": "https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2253?view_type=search&col=123456789/1362",
"date": "12-Apr-2017",
"title": "The Goods and ServicesTax(Compensation to States) Act, 2017",
"act_no": "15",
"handle_id": "2253"
},
{
"url": "https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/1834?view_type=search&col=123456789/1362",
"date": "9-Dec-1980",
"title": "The Hotel-ReceiptsTaxAct, 1980",
"act_no": "54",
"handle_id": "1834"
},
{
"url": "https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2247?view_type=search&col=123456789/1362",
"date": "23-Aug-2017",
"title": "The Integrated Goods and ServicesTax(Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017",
"act_no": "27",
"handle_id": "2247"
}
],
"total_results": 60
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the indiacode.nic.in API
The India Code API provides access to Indian legislation through 6 endpoints covering search, browsing, and full-text retrieval of Central and State Acts from indiacode.nic.in. The get_act_details endpoint returns an act's title, metadata, full section list, and subordinate legislation in a single call. The get_section_detail endpoint delivers both HTML and plain-text renditions of any section along with its footnotes.
Search and Browse Legislation
The search_acts endpoint accepts a query keyword and an optional type parameter — acts, section, or subordinate — to narrow results. Pagination is controlled via start and rpp (results per page), and the response includes total_results so callers can page through large result sets. browse_central_acts supports a browse_type parameter (e.g. shorttitle) to iterate through the Central Acts catalogue in sorted order.
Act Details and Section Content
get_act_details takes a handle_id (for example, 2160) and returns the act's title, act_id, a metadata object, the full sections array, and a subordinate_legislation object listing any linked rules or regulations. Once you have section IDs from that response, get_section_detail accepts the full-format act_id (e.g. AC_CEN_37_85_00001_201618_1517807328460) and a section_id to return content_html, content_text, footnote_html, and footnote_text for that specific provision.
State Acts and Bulk Structured Output
get_state_acts browses legislation for a specific state using a state handle_id (e.g. 2454 for Andaman & Nicobar Islands), returning paginated results in the same format as the Central Acts browse. For bulk extraction, scrape_act_full_structured accepts a handle_id and an optional limit on the number of sections to fetch, and returns a single structured JSON containing all section contents alongside sections_scraped and total_sections_in_act counts — useful when you need an entire act without assembling it section by section.
- Build a full-text search index of Indian Central and State Acts using
search_actswith keyword queries. - Display act summaries with metadata and linked subordinate legislation via
get_act_details. - Render individual statutory provisions with footnotes using
content_htmlfromget_section_detail. - Export complete acts as structured JSON for offline legal reference using
scrape_act_full_structured. - Build a state-wise legislation browser by iterating state handle IDs through
get_state_acts. - Track amendments and related rules by parsing the
subordinate_legislationobject returned byget_act_details. - Power a legal research tool that maps section IDs to plain-text content for NLP processing.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does indiacode.nic.in have an official developer API?+
What does `get_act_details` return beyond the act text?+
title, act_id, a metadata object (which includes legislative details such as enactment year and ministry), a sections array listing all sections with their IDs, and a subordinate_legislation object enumerating any rules, regulations, or orders made under that act. You use the section IDs from this response as inputs to get_section_detail.Does `scrape_act_full_structured` always return all sections?+
limit parameter caps how many sections have their content fetched. The response includes both sections_scraped and total_sections_in_act, so you can detect when a limit was applied and make additional calls or adjust the limit to retrieve the full act.Does the API expose bill tracking, parliamentary debate records, or gazette notifications?+
Are there any known coverage gaps for State Acts?+
sections_scraped vs total_sections_in_act fields in scrape_act_full_structured are a practical indicator of gaps for any given act.