Legal Citation Validator

This skill provides validation and formatting guidance for Indian legal citations, statutory references, and case law according to established legal citation standards.

Purpose

Ensures precision and accuracy in legal writing by:

Validating statutory section references against actual legislation
Formatting case law citations according to AIR/SCR/SCC standards
Detecting common citation errors and inconsistencies
Providing proper abbreviated forms for courts and authorities

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

Writing legal protocols, opinions, or analysis
Citing statutory provisions (e.g., "Section 14 of the Constitution")
Referencing case law (e.g., landmark judgments)
Drafting legal documents requiring precise citations
Reviewing legal content for citation accuracy
Creating cross-references between legal provisions

Citation Standards

1. Statutory Citations

Format: [Act Name], [Year], Section [Number]

Examples:

✅ CORRECT: "Section 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950"
✅ CORRECT: "Section 300 IPC" (when IPC context is clear)
✅ CORRECT: "Article 14 of the Constitution"
❌ INCORRECT: "Article 14" (without Act reference in first mention)
❌ INCORRECT: "Sec. 21" (use "Section" in formal writing)

Rules:

First mention: Full Act name + year + Section number
Subsequent mentions: Abbreviated form acceptable if unambiguous
Use "Section" for statutes, "Article" only for Constitution
Clause/sub-section format: "Section 14(1)(a)"

2. Case Law Citations

Primary Formats (in order of preference):

AIR (All India Reporter): [Case Name] v. [Respondent], AIR [Year] [Court] [Page]
SCR (Supreme Court Reports): ([Year]) [Volume] SCR [Page]
SCC (Supreme Court Cases): ([Year]) [Volume] SCC [Page]

Examples:

✅ CORRECT: "Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461"
✅ CORRECT: "Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248"
✅ CORRECT: "Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 3011"
❌ INCORRECT: "Kesavananda case (1973)" (informal, lacks citation)
❌ INCORRECT: "AIR 1973 1461" (missing court abbreviation)

Court Abbreviations:

SC = Supreme Court of India
Del = Delhi High Court
Bom = Bombay High Court
Cal = Calcutta High Court
Mad = Madras High Court
(Refer to @.claude/skills/legal-citation-validator/references/court-abbreviations.md for complete list)

3. Constitutional Citations

Format: Article [Number], Part [Part Number if relevant], Constitution of India

Examples:

✅ CORRECT: "Article 21, Part III, Constitution of India"
✅ CORRECT: "Articles 14-18 (Right to Equality)"
✅ CORRECT: "Article 32 (Constitutional Remedies)"
❌ INCORRECT: "Art. 21" (use "Article" in formal writing)

4. Amendment Citations

Format: [Ordinal Number] Amendment, [Year] OR Constitution (Amendment) Act, [Year]

Examples:

✅ CORRECT: "42nd Amendment, 1976"
✅ CORRECT: "Constitution (Forty-Second Amendment) Act, 1976"
✅ CORRECT: "44th Amendment (repealed Emergency provisions)"

Validation Workflow

Step 1: Identify Citations

Scan document for patterns:

"Section [number]"
"Article [number]"
Case names (capitalized party names with "v." or "vs.")
"AIR [year]", "SCC", "SCR" patterns
Act names with years (e.g., "Act, 1872")

Step 2: Validate Format

Check each citation against standards in @references/citation-formats.md:

Proper spacing (e.g., "AIR 1973 SC 1461" not "AIR1973SC1461")
Correct abbreviations (e.g., "SC" not "S.C." for Supreme Court)
Comma placement (e.g., "v." followed by respondent name)
Year format consistency (e.g., 1973 not '73)

Step 3: Verify Statutory References

For statutory citations:

Check section number exists in referenced Act
Verify subsection/clause notation (e.g., "Section 14(1)" not "Section 14-1")
Confirm Act year is correct (e.g., "IPC, 1860" not "IPC, 1860")

Common Errors:

❌ "Section 301 IPC" (IPC has 511 sections, no Section 301 exists - correct is "Section 300")
❌ "Article 370A" (no such Article - correct is "Article 370")
❌ "Section 14(a)" (should be "Section 14(1)" if referring to first clause)

Step 4: Validate Case Citations

For case law:

Check party names are capitalized correctly
Verify "v." (not "vs" or "vs." in formal citations)
Confirm court abbreviation is standard
Check year is within realistic range (1950-2025 for independent India)

Refer to @references/landmark-cases-index.md for verification of major cases.

Step 5: Cross-Reference Check

Ensure citations are consistent:

Same case cited the same way throughout document
Same statutory provision formatted consistently
Abbreviations used consistently (don't mix "IPC" and "Indian Penal Code" randomly)

Step 6: Generate Validation Report

Output format:

✓ VALID CITATIONS: [count]
  - Statutory: [count]
  - Case law: [count]
  - Constitutional: [count]

⚠ WARNINGS: [count]
  - [Description of inconsistency or formatting issue]

✗ ERRORS: [count]
  - Line [X]: [Error description and suggested correction]

Reference Files

Primary References

@references/citation-formats.md: Complete citation format rules
@references/court-abbreviations.md: All court short forms (25 High Courts, tribunals)
@references/landmark-cases-index.md: Major cases with verified citations
@references/statutory-index.md: All major Acts with year and section ranges

Usage

When validating a citation, read the relevant reference file:

Read @.claude/skills/legal-citation-validator/references/citation-formats.md

Common Citation Errors to Detect

1. Informal Language

❌ "the Kesavananda case" → ✅ "Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461"
❌ "Section 21 judgment" → ✅ "interpretation of Article 21 in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India"

2. Incomplete Citations

❌ "AIR 1978 597" → ✅ "AIR 1978 SC 597"
❌ "Section 14" (first mention) → ✅ "Section 14 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872"

3. Incorrect Abbreviations

❌ "S.C." → ✅ "SC"
❌ "vs." or "vs" → ✅ "v."
❌ "Sec." → ✅ "Section" (formal) or no abbreviation

4. Formatting Errors

❌ "AIR1973SC1461" → ✅ "AIR 1973 SC 1461" (spacing)
❌ "Article-21" → ✅ "Article 21" (no hyphen)
❌ "Section 14 (1)" → ✅ "Section 14(1)" (no space before parenthesis)

Integration

With Other Skills

Works with legal-opinion-drafter to ensure citations in opinions are valid
Supports legal-research-assistant in formatting research output
Used by Indian Law agents when generating legal analysis

With Protocols

Validates citations in all IL-* protocols
Ensures cross-protocol references are accurate
Maintains citation consistency across protocol updates

With Hooks

Can be triggered by legal-precision-check hook on Write/Edit operations

Examples

Example 1: Validate Constitutional Citation

Input: "Art. 21" Validation:

⚠ WARNING: Use "Article" not "Art." in formal writing
✓ Section number valid Suggested: "Article 21, Part III, Constitution of India"

Example 2: Validate Case Citation

Input: "Kesavananda vs State of Kerala (1973)" Validation:

✗ ERROR: Use "v." not "vs" in formal citations
✗ ERROR: Missing reporter citation (AIR/SCR/SCC)
⚠ WARNING: Party name should include "Bharati" Suggested: "Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461"

Example 3: Validate Statutory Reference

Input: "Sec. 14(a) of ICA" Validation:

⚠ WARNING: Use "Section" not "Sec." in formal writing
✗ ERROR: Clause notation should be (1) not (a) for first clause
⚠ WARNING: First mention should spell out "Indian Contract Act, 1872" Suggested: "Section 14(1) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872"

Tools Required

This skill uses:

Read: To access reference files
Grep: To search for citation patterns in documents

Disclaimer

This skill provides formatting guidance based on common Indian legal citation practices. It does not constitute legal advice. For authoritative citation rules, consult:

Supreme Court Rules, 2013 (Order VI, Rule 3)
Bluebook (adapted for Indian law)
Individual court citation rules

Verify all statutory and case citations against official sources (India Code, Indian Kanoon) before final publication.

Skill Version: 1.0.0 Last Updated: 2025-12-05 Part of: Indian Law Knowledge Ecosystem Dependencies: None