Introduction

The important thing to note is that Indlaw will return to you a list of documents that contain the keywords (or phrases) that you specify. Therefore you must choose your search words carefully. Understanding the Indlaw Search Functionalities would enable you to get the most appropriate Search Results from the Search Engines. The Search Engines by default "relevance rank" each of the results, which means that the best matches will appear at the top of the list. However you will achieve best results when searching for distinctive words or phrases using Boolean search parameters.

HOW TO START USING BOOLEAN SEARCH PARAMETERS
Use of Boolean Search Parameters would be most appropriate when searching through huge fields in the Database like the Keywords Field or the Judgment Text Field.

This is because the simple database searches retrieves only the most statistically relevant results from the database. For example, a simple search for " Constitution" in the Judgment Search Field yields over 30,000 results. The search results would be much more if a combination of words or a more common word is chose. Refining this search would take a longer time from the search results. Thus, a more appropriate search for words, phrases, concepts or principles occurring in the database would be through the Boolean Search criteria.

How to use Boolean Search
1) Simply type the principle / concept / word
2) Decide whether you want to search on the basis of either

• any of the words listed / all of the words listed; or
• the words as a phrase (i.e., in the exact order as typed); or
• the words search using boolean parameters

3) In case you decide on Boolean parameters enter the Boolean criteria (AND, OR, NOT, "", NEAR ) to circumscribe the search.
4) Click Go

Indlaw will display the notification that most closely matches the concepts in your description and in accordance with the Boolean Parameters specified.

Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searches
Boolean search techniques may be used to perform accurate searches without producing many irrelevant documents.

When you perform a Boolean search, you search the computer database for the keywords that best describe your topic. The power of Boolean searching is based on combinations of keywords with connecting terms called operators. The three basic operators are the terms AND, OR, and NOT. By virtue of their function they are also referred to as Connectors.

Connectors
Use connectors to establish logical relationships between words and concepts in a Boolean search request. The indlaw.com service does not look for the connectors themselves in documents - just for the actual search words. Multiple connectors can be used in one search request.

OR
The Boolean OR command is used in order to allow any of the specified search terms to be present on the web pages listed in results. It can also be described as a Match Any search. You use the command like this:
Shares OR Stock

OR Links synonyms, alternative forms of expression, acronyms, antonyms, and so on:

Eg. 1) doctor OR physician - finds either doctor or physician

2) mouse OR rat OR rodent - finds either mouse or rat or rodent

3) Registrar of companies OR ROC -finds either Registrar of Companies or ROC

4) Regulat* OR deregulat? - finds variations on either regulate or deregulate

AND
The Boolean AND command is used in order to require that all search terms be present on the web pages listed in results. It can also be described as a Match All search. You use the command like this:

asset AND securitisation

AND links words or phrases that must both appear anywhere in the same document, no matter how close or far apart.

Eg. NBFC AND debentures - finds NBFC and debentures anywhere in the same document.

If you want more than one phrase or word to appear in the retrieved documents, put an AND between them. For example, to find Notifications containing the phrase " depository " as well as the word "shares", type depository AND shares.

If, on the other hand, you want to find one term and / or another one, put an OR between them. For example, to find Notifications those contain the words "depository" or "participant " or "shares" search for depository OR participant Or shares.

You can even put these two searches together as in " depository or share AND participant and broker".

NOT
The Boolean NOT command is used in order to require that a particular search term NOT be present on web pages listed in results. It can also be described as an Exclude search. You use the command like this:

asset NOT securitisation

Not excludes any words that follow the connector from appearing in a document.

Eg. "Cooperative society" AND NOT "Delhi cooperative society" - finds the word cooperative society anywhere in the document, but the phrase Delhi cooperative society cannot appear anywhere in the document.

Caution: Use the AND NOT connector carefully. It eliminates any words that follow it and, consequently, changes the impact of other connectors.

Connector Order Priority
Connectors operate in the following order of priority:
a) NOT
b) AND
c) OR
Please Note : The Boolean command -NOT tells the search engine to throw out any documents that contain that word. This command should be used sparingly.

Eg. Bank AND drawer OR cheque NOT bounced

a) Because NOT has the highest priority, it operates first and eliminates documents containing the word bounced!.

b) In view of the AND connector, it ties together the word bank and drawer; bank and cheque; and drawer and cheque.

c) OR, with the lowest priority, operates last and links the units formed.

PROXIMITY SEARCHES

NEAR
The NEAR command is used in order to specify how close terms should appear to each other. You use the command like this:
asset NEAR securitisation

Please consider whether you really need to control proximity within your searches. For Indlaw Searches - NEAR means that terms will appear within 50 words of each other.

Returns all documents where the first term appears nearby the second term. "Near" corresponds to 50 words, which is intended to be roughly the size of a paragraph. If two words are close together, then the chance of them being related is increased. Only works when your search is set to Boolean Mode. Useful when searching for references to case names.

WILDCARDS

Wildcard operators help you find pages containing words similar to a given word. You can search for plurals or variations of words using a wildcard character. It is also a great way to search if you don't know the spelling of a word.

The * symbol is recognized as the wildcard symbol by the Indlaw search engines. Indlaw also support "stemming", i.e., The search engine will find terms like "cheating" even if you only enter "cheat". (Words based on the same stem word ) This also means you may not need to use a wildcard symbol. Below are some important additional details about wildcard searching at Indlaw.

Search Examples
1. deposit* - related words - deposit, depository, depositories, depositing .

2. "depository" Search only for depository

3. " depository AND participant" the words depository and participant, occurring together in the same page.

4. "depository participant" the words 'depository participant', occurring together as a phrase

5. Commerce, transaction - Both / Either /Any of the words - Commerce, transaction would be searched.
The more instances of these keywords in a page, the higher it appears in the result list of the search.

Phrase Search

Surrounding a group of words with double quotes tells the search engine to only retrieve documents in which those words appear side-by-side. Phrase searching is a powerful search technique for significantly narrowing your search results, and it should be used as often as possible.

This is where you tell a search engine to give you pages where the terms appear in exactly the order you specify. You do this by putting quotation marks around the phrase, like this: "asset securitisation in infrastructure projects"

Now, only pages that have all the words and in the exact order shown above will be listed. The answers should be much more on target than with simple addition.