> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vaquill.ai/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Search Indian legislation > Search 23,000+ Indian acts, regulations, and legislation. **Authentication**: API key via `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` **Cost**: 2 credits Returns relevant act sections with full metadata: category, state, department, provision type, legal subject, acts referenced, enactment date, and more. Filter by category (central, state, regulatory), state, department, and year range. ## OpenAPI ````yaml https://api.vaquill.ai/in/openapi.json post /api/v1/in/acts/search openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Vaquill India API description: >- Public API for Indian primary law: Central and State Acts, the instruments of the principal regulators, and their individual sections. **Authentication**: Pass your API key via the `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` header. The same key works against the US API; the two share one credit balance. **Credits**: Each call costs API credits. See `GET /api/v1/api-credits/pricing` for the full pricing matrix. ## Coverage | Layer | Volume | |---|---| | Enactments (Central, State and UT) | 22,265 | | Individually addressable provisions | 1,098,577 | | Regulator instruments | roughly half the corpus | Regulators covered include SEBI, RBI, MCA, IRDAI, TRAI, DGFT, MOEFCC and CPCB. `sourceUrl` points at the publisher's own document where we hold a live one, and is `null` otherwise. India Code migrated hosts in August 2026 and re-minted its identifiers, so links into the old site no longer resolve; we return nothing rather than a link that 404s. `pdfUrl` and `textUrl` are served from our own mirror and are unaffected. ## Scope This document describes the **India** surface only. US statutes are a separate document at `/external/openapi.json`, so an MCP client configured here sees Indian tools and nothing else. version: 1.0.0 contact: name: Vaquill API Support url: https://www.vaquill.ai email: support@vaquill.ai license: name: Proprietary url: https://www.vaquill.ai/terms termsOfService: https://www.vaquill.ai/terms servers: - url: https://api.vaquill.ai description: Production security: - ApiKeyAuth: [] paths: /api/v1/in/acts/search: post: tags: - Indian Acts & Legislation summary: Search Indian legislation description: >- Search 23,000+ Indian acts, regulations, and legislation. **Authentication**: API key via `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` **Cost**: 2 credits Returns relevant act sections with full metadata: category, state, department, provision type, legal subject, acts referenced, enactment date, and more. Filter by category (central, state, regulatory), state, department, and year range. operationId: search_acts_api_v1_in_acts_search_post requestBody: content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActSearchRequest' required: true responses: '200': description: Successful Response content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActSearchResponse' example: data: results: - actId: IND_state_20326 title: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. sectionNumber: '23' sectionTitle: Assessment chapter: V chapterTitle: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. year: 2002 category: state state: maharashtra department: Finance Department jurisdiction: state actStatus: in_force provisionType: overriding legalSubject: - tax_law content: >- Act: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. (Act 9 of 2002) | India | State | In Force Chapter V: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. | Section 23: Assessment ( _2_ )[1] [Where the return in respect of any period] is filed by a registered dealer, by the prescri… enactmentDate: 9-Mar-2005 pdfUrl: https://acts-india.vaquill.ai/IND_state_20326/act.pdf textUrl: >- https://acts-india.vaquill.ai/IND_state_20326/act.normalized.txt sourceUrl: https://indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/568111 relevanceScore: 0.8555 citation: citation: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002., s. 23 citationShort: Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002., s. 23 displayPath: >- The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. / Chapter V. RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. / s. 23 breadcrumb: - type: chapter num: V label: Chapter V name: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. - actId: IND_state_20326 title: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. sectionNumber: '20' sectionTitle: Returns and self-assessment chapter: V chapterTitle: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. year: 2002 category: state state: maharashtra department: Finance Department jurisdiction: state actStatus: in_force provisionType: overriding legalSubject: - tax_law content: >- Act: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. (Act 9 of 2002) | India | State | In Force Chapter V: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. | Section 20: Returns and self-assessment CHAPTER V RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. > 3[20. Returns and self-assessment.— ( _1_ … enactmentDate: 9-Mar-2005 pdfUrl: https://acts-india.vaquill.ai/IND_state_20326/act.pdf textUrl: >- https://acts-india.vaquill.ai/IND_state_20326/act.normalized.txt sourceUrl: https://indiacode.gov.in/handle/123456789/568111 relevanceScore: 0.7734 citation: citation: The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002., s. 20 citationShort: Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002., s. 20 displayPath: >- The Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. / Part. RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. / Chapter V. RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. / s. 20 breadcrumb: - type: part label: Part name: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. - type: chapter num: V label: Chapter V name: RETURNS AND ASSESSMENT, ETC. totalReturned: 3 meta: processingTimeMs: 3296 creditsConsumed: 2 creditsRemaining: 86761 page: 1 pageSize: 3 total: 79320 totalPages: 34 '401': description: Missing or invalid API key content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' '402': description: Insufficient credits content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' '403': description: Key lacks the research:read scope content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' '404': description: No such act or provision content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' '422': description: Malformed or unknown request field content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' '429': description: Rate limited content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ApiDetailError' components: schemas: ActSearchRequest: properties: query: type: string maxLength: 1000 minLength: 2 title: Query description: Search query. examples: - assessment of a registered dealer category: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' enum: - central - state - regulatory - repealed - spent title: Category description: >- Jurisdictional class. `repealed` and `spent` are accepted for backward compatibility and resolve against `actStatus` instead. examples: - central state: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' enum: - andaman-and-nicobar-islands - andaman-nicobar - andhra-pradesh - arunachal-pradesh - assam - bihar - central - chandigarh - chhattisgarh - dadra-and-nagar-haveli-and-daman-and-diu - dadra-nagar-haveli - delhi - goa - gujarat - haryana - himachal-pradesh - jammu-and-kashmir - jammu-kashmir - jharkhand - karnataka - kerala - ladakh - lakshadweep - madhya-pradesh - maharashtra - manipur - meghalaya - mizoram - nagaland - odisha - puducherry - punjab - rajasthan - sikkim - tamil-nadu - telangana - tripura - uttar-pradesh - uttarakhand - west-bengal title: State description: >- Jurisdiction slug. `central` is a value here, for Union legislation. Live counts per jurisdiction are on GET /acts/coverage. examples: - maharashtra department: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Department description: >- Issuing body. Deliberately NOT an enumerated list: this field holds 943 distinct values and mixes clean regulator slugs (`sebi`, `rbi`, `moefcc`) with free-text state department names (`Law Department`). Read GET /acts/filters for the values with the most data behind them. examples: - sebi actStatus: anyOf: - type: string - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' enum: - in_force - repealed - superseded - spent title: Actstatus description: >- Filter by the publisher's lifecycle status: `in_force`, `repealed`, `superseded`, `spent`. Accepts one value or a list. This is the publisher's claim, not our verdict: see GET /acts/{actId}/status. examples: - repealed excludeRepealed: type: boolean title: Excluderepealed description: >- Drop provisions whose act the publisher records as repealed or spent. Off by default, because repealed law is still law that was in force and is routinely the thing being researched. default: false examples: - true isSubordinate: anyOf: - type: boolean - type: 'null' title: Issubordinate description: >- True for subordinate instruments only (rules, notifications, circulars, orders); false for principal acts only. Omit for both. examples: - false provisionType: anyOf: - type: string - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' enum: - mandatory - general - prohibitory - overriding - discretionary - declaratory title: Provisiontype description: >- Filter by what the provision DOES: `definitional`, `prohibitory`, `procedural`, `penal`, `overriding` and others. Accepts a value or a list. examples: - mandatory sectionType: anyOf: - type: string - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' enum: - amendment_provision - article - body - chapter_heading - definition_clause - definitions - part_heading - preamble - schedule - section - short_title - sub_section title: Sectiontype description: >- Filter by structural kind: `section`, `sub_section`, `definitions`, `preamble`, `schedule`, `short_title`. examples: - definitions legalSubject: anyOf: - type: string - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' enum: - administrative_law - banking_finance - civil_procedure - constitutional_law - corporate_law - criminal_law - environmental_law - family_law - general - information_technology - intellectual_property - labour_law - property_law - tax_law title: Legalsubject description: >- Filter by subject area, e.g. `tax_law`, `criminal_law`, `environmental_law`, `company_law`. examples: - tax_law matchType: type: string enum: - any - all - phrase title: Matchtype description: >- How query terms must appear in the provision text. `any` (the default) leaves hybrid ranking to do the work; `all` keeps only provisions containing EVERY query term; `phrase` keeps only those containing the exact phrase. ⚠️ It narrows the ranked candidate pool rather than re-querying the index, so a `phrase` search returns phrase matches WITHIN the top candidates, not every phrase match in the corpus. For an exhaustive phrase search, narrow with the structured filters first. default: any examples: - phrase page: type: integer minimum: 1 title: Page description: >- 1-based page number. `page * pageSize` may not exceed 100; narrow the query with filters to reach deeper matches. default: 1 yearFrom: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Yearfrom description: Minimum year (inclusive) examples: - 2015 yearTo: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Yearto description: Maximum year (inclusive) examples: - 2024 sectionNumber: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sectionnumber description: >- Filter by exact section number. The publisher's own numbering, which is not an integer: `498A`, `376DA` and `2-A` all occur, and the alphabetic suffix is part of the number rather than a sub-provision. examples: - 498A actTitle: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Acttitle description: >- Filter by words in the act's title. Each word must appear, so `Bharatiya Nyaya` narrows to the Sanhita. examples: - Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pageSize: type: integer maximum: 50 minimum: 1 title: Pagesize description: Results per page (1-50) default: 10 additionalProperties: false type: object required: - query title: ActSearchRequest description: Search Indian legislation by semantic query. ActSearchResponse: properties: data: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActSearchData' meta: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActSearchMeta' type: object required: - data - meta title: ActSearchResponse ApiDetailError: properties: detail: type: string title: Detail description: >- Human-readable reason, safe to surface to an end user. Branch on the HTTP status rather than on this string: the wording is not part of the contract and may be reworded, but 401 (bad key), 402 (out of credits), 403 (missing scope), 404 (no such resource) and 429 (rate limited) are stable. examples: - Insufficient API credits. type: object required: - detail title: ApiDetailError description: |- Error envelope the API actually returns. All errors (401/402/403/404/422/429/5xx) come back as a single `detail` string (FastAPI default), e.g. `{"detail": "Insufficient API credits."}`. Documenting the real shape so client code can rely on it. ActSearchData: properties: results: items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ActSearchResult' type: array title: Results totalReturned: type: integer title: Totalreturned type: object required: - results - totalReturned title: ActSearchData ActSearchMeta: properties: processingTimeMs: type: integer title: Processingtimems creditsConsumed: type: number title: Creditsconsumed creditsRemaining: type: number title: Creditsremaining page: type: integer title: Page pageSize: type: integer title: Pagesize total: type: integer title: Total description: >- Passages in the corpus matching the filters. This is the size of the haystack, not the number of results you can page through: a single section spans several passages, and relevance gating plus act+section dedup run after retrieval. Treat it as an upper bound and a signal to narrow your filters, not as a result count. totalPages: type: integer title: Totalpages description: >- Pages actually reachable, derived from the result window rather than from `total`. type: object required: - processingTimeMs - creditsConsumed - creditsRemaining - page - pageSize - total - totalPages title: ActSearchMeta ActSearchResult: properties: actId: type: string title: Actid title: type: string title: Title sectionNumber: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sectionnumber sectionTitle: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sectiontitle chapter: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Chapter chapterTitle: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Chaptertitle year: anyOf: - type: integer - type: 'null' title: Year category: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Category state: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: State department: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Department jurisdiction: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Jurisdiction actStatus: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Actstatus provisionType: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Provisiontype legalSubject: anyOf: - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' title: Legalsubject actsReferenced: anyOf: - items: type: string type: array - type: 'null' title: Actsreferenced content: type: string title: Content description: Relevant text excerpt longTitle: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Longtitle enactmentDate: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Enactmentdate pdfUrl: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Pdfurl textUrl: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Texturl sourceUrl: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sourceurl relevanceScore: anyOf: - type: number - type: 'null' title: Relevancescore description: >- Ranking score for this result against the query, after hybrid fusion and cross-encoder reranking. Comparable WITHIN one response and not across responses: it is a rank artifact, not a probability, and not a statement about legal relevance. examples: - 0.87 sourceUrlNote: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Sourceurlnote description: >- Why `sourceUrl` is absent, when it is. A named reason, because a bare null cannot be told apart from 'not applicable'. citation: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Citation' description: How to cite this provision. Present on 99.90% of served acts. type: object required: - actId - title - content title: ActSearchResult description: A single legislation search result with full metadata. Citation: properties: citation: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Citation citationShort: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Citationshort displayPath: anyOf: - type: string - type: 'null' title: Displaypath breadcrumb: anyOf: - items: additionalProperties: true type: object type: array - type: 'null' title: Breadcrumb type: object title: Citation description: >- How to cite the thing this response is about. Present on 99.90% of served acts. Where the publisher's own title carries a defect, so does the citation: 10.4% of titles end in a period, which reads as `... Act., s. 3`, and 4.7% carry no year at all. Both are recorded defects rather than reasons to withhold the field. securitySchemes: ApiKeyAuth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: vq_key_* description: >- API key issued from the developer dashboard. Pass as `Authorization: Bearer vq_key_...` ````