# Niyam vs SCC Online — Niyam > Honest comparison of Niyam and SCC Online for Indian legal research: plain-English Q&A with inline citations vs deep editorial headnotes and India's authoritative case reporter. See which fits your workflow. SCC Online (Supreme Court Cases) is the authoritative legal database of EBC Publishing — the same editorial team behind the printed SCC volumes that the Indian bar has cited for decades. It carries deep editorial headnotes, a respected citator, and broad coverage of Indian courts and tribunals. Niyam takes a different approach: plain-English questions answered directly from Indian statutes and judgments, every proposition cited to its source, and research connected to drafting in one workspace. This page compares them honestly. ## What you can do - Plain-English Q&A over 72,000+ Indian judgments — no boolean syntax - Every answer cited to the exact section or paragraph it relied on - Good-law signals and drafting in one workspace ## Capabilities - **Ask the question you actually have** — SCC Online is unmatched for navigating the Supreme Court's own reports by citation, volume, or editorial category. Niyam is built for a different moment: when you have a legal question rather than a citation to look up. Ask in plain English and get the governing authority cited directly in the answer. - **Every claim carries its source** — The SCC's editorial headnotes are crafted by legal editors who understand the ratio of each case — a genuine strength when you need a reliable summary. Niyam takes a different approach: no editorial layer between you and the source. Every sentence in an answer is tied to the statute or judgment it came from, so you verify the primary source directly. - **Treatment history in the answer, not a separate tab** — SCC Online's Citator is a separate tool you consult after finding the case. In Niyam, treatment history appears alongside the cited case in the research answer itself — followed, distinguished, referred, or overruled — so the good-law check is part of the workflow, not an additional step. - **From authority to draft without switching tools** — SCC Online is a research database. Drafting happens elsewhere. In Niyam, once you've found and good-law checked the authority, you draft the submission, note, or contract clause from it in the same session — citations carry forward, no manual re-entry required. ## How it works 1. **Ask in plain English** — Put the legal issue as you would to a colleague. Niyam reads Indian statutes, rules, and judgments to understand what you mean — no citation syntax or boolean operators. 2. **Get a cited answer** — Every answer comes grounded in primary Indian sources with the section, rule, or judgment paragraph cited. Good-law treatment appears alongside every cited case. 3. **Verify, draft, and save** — Open the cited source, confirm it says what Niyam says, draft from it, and save the authority to the relevant matter — all in one workspace. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is SCC Online better than Niyam? For practitioners who rely on the SCC's authoritative editorial headnotes, need broad tribunal coverage, or work extensively with the SCC's printed volumes and their electronic equivalents, yes — SCC Online is an established, deeply curated database that the Indian bar has used for decades. Its editorial headnotes are a genuine product strength. Niyam is better suited when you want plain-English Q&A with every answer cited to a primary source, or when you want research and drafting in one workspace. For many practitioners, both tools serve different steps in the workflow. ### Does Niyam cover the same courts as SCC Online? Niyam indexes more than 72,000 Supreme Court and High Court judgments alongside central and state Acts and rules. SCC Online has broader tribunal and appellate body coverage — NCLAT, NCLT, TDSAT, and others — built up over many years. If you regularly work with specialised tribunals, check current coverage on niyam.ai before making the switch. ### Does Niyam have editorial headnotes like SCC? No. Niyam does not have a dedicated editorial headnote layer. Every answer is generated directly from the underlying statute or judgment, with the source cited and one click away. This is a different trade-off — editorial summaries save reading time; direct grounding means you see exactly what the primary source says. Which is better depends on your workflow. ### Can I use both SCC Online and Niyam? Yes. Many practitioners use a traditional database for structured search and editorial summaries, and Niyam for plain-English Q&A and integrated drafting. They address complementary steps in the research and document workflow. ### Why is Niyam priced so much lower? SCC Online is priced for institutions and firms, reflecting decades of editorial investment. Niyam's ₹100 trial grants 200 credits covering real research and drafting tasks — making professional-grade AI legal research accessible to practitioners who cannot justify an institutional subscription. It is a different product at a different entry point. ### Is this legal advice? No. Niyam is legal research and drafting tooling. It provides legal information grounded in primary Indian sources. It does not create an advocate–client relationship and does not replace advice from a qualified legal professional. Verify every citation and exercise your own professional judgment. ### Is my research private? Yes. Your queries, matters, and saved research stay private to your account. Your work product is never sold and never used to train public models. ## Get started Create your Niyam account in under a minute — ₹100 to start, 200 credits to try everything. Ask a question and see the cited authority behind every answer. Start your ₹100 trial at https://app.niyam.ai/register — 200 credits to begin, cancel anytime.