{"id":6579,"date":"2026-09-05T19:08:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/glossary\/supreme-court-dika\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:24:15","slug":"supreme-court-dika","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/supreme-court-dika\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court of Thailand (San Dika) and Dika Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p>\u0e40\u0e14\u0e2d\u0e30 <strong>\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e0e\u0e35\u0e01\u0e32\u0e41\u0e2b\u0e48\u0e07\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e17\u0e28\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22<\/strong> (\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e0e\u0e35\u0e01\u0e32, <em>San Dika<\/em>, also <em>\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e14\u0e34\u0e01\u0e32<\/em> \u0e2b\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d <em>Supreme Court of Justice<\/em>) is the highest court in the Courts of Justice, the ordinary court system that hears civil and criminal cases. Its judgments, known as <em>Dika decisions<\/em>, are cited by a serial number and the Buddhist year and are the closest thing Thai law has to case law. A foreigner meets the Court at the end of a long dispute, or more often through the decisions that lawyers quote to predict how a lease, a will or a property structure will be treated.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e23\u0e1a\u0e31\u0e0d<\/h2><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#position-in-the-court-hierarchy\">Position in the court hierarchy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#getting-a-case-to-the-supreme-court\">Getting a case to the Supreme Court<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#dika-decisions-citation-and-weight\">Dika decisions: citation and weight<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#frequently-asked-questions\">\u0e04\u0e33\u0e16\u0e32\u0e21\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e1e\u0e1a\u0e1a\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e22<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"position-in-the-court-hierarchy\">Position in the court hierarchy<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p><strong>Three tiers.<\/strong> Cases begin in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-of-first-instance\/\">courts of first instance<\/a> (civil, criminal, provincial and kwaeng courts, plus specialised courts for labour, tax, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/bankruptcy\/\">bankruptcy<\/a>, intellectual property and family matters), go on appeal to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-of-appeal\/\">\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e2d\u0e38\u0e17\u0e18\u0e23\u0e13\u0e4c<\/a> or a specialised appeal court, and end at the Supreme Court in Bangkok. The Court sits in panels of at least three judges and has specialised divisions mirroring the specialised courts, as well as the Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p>The Supreme Court is separate from the Constitutional Court, which rules on the constitutionality of statutes, and from the Supreme Administrative Court, which hears disputes against state agencies. A foreigner challenging an immigration or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/land-office\/\">\u0e2a\u0e33\u0e19\u0e31\u0e01\u0e07\u0e32\u0e19\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e14\u0e34\u0e19<\/a> decision is usually in the administrative courts; one suing a developer or defending a criminal charge is in the Courts of Justice.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"getting-a-case-to-the-supreme-court\">Getting a case to the Supreme Court<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p><strong>Access is restricted.<\/strong> Since the 2015 amendment of the Civil Procedure Code, a civil appeal to the Supreme Court requires the Court&#8217;s permission, granted only where the question is of general importance, the lower courts conflict, or the appeal raises a point that needs a ruling of the Supreme Court. The petition, called a dika, must be filed within one month of the Court of Appeal judgment, together with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-fees\/\">court fee<\/a> of 2% of the amount in dispute, capped at 200,000 baht. In criminal cases the Criminal Procedure Code bars appeals on questions of fact where the lower courts agree and the sentence is light, so most criminal dikas turn on points of law.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p><strong>Time.<\/strong> A civil case that runs through all three tiers commonly takes four to six years, which is why settlement or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/arbitration\/\">arbitration<\/a> is often preferred.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"dika-decisions-citation-and-weight\">Dika decisions: citation and weight<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p><strong>Citation.<\/strong> A decision is identified by a running number, a slash and the Buddhist year (subtract 543 for the Western year), often prefixed &#8220;Dika&#8221; or &#8220;Supreme Court Decision&#8221;. Decisions are published by the Court and collected by the Thai Bar, and this site&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/supreme-court-decisions\/\">Supreme Court decisions library<\/a> presents selected judgments in Thai and English with annotations.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>\u0e04\u0e38\u0e13\u0e2a\u0e21\u0e1a\u0e31\u0e15\u0e34<\/th><th>\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e17\u0e28\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22<\/th><th>Common law countries<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>\u0e41\u0e23\u0e07\u0e22\u0e36\u0e14\u0e40\u0e2b\u0e19\u0e35\u0e48\u0e22\u0e27<\/td><td>Persuasive; lower courts follow settled lines but are not bound<\/td><td>Binding precedent<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Source of law<\/td><td>Codes and statutes; decisions interpret them<\/td><td>Case law is itself a source<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Citation form<\/td><td>Number\/Buddhist year<\/td><td>Party names and law report<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p>Thailand is a civil law system, so a Dika decision interprets the Code rather than creating law, and a later panel may depart from it. In practice lawyers and judges treat a consistent line of decisions as settled, which is why a good opinion on a usufruct, a 30-year lease or a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/nominee\/\">\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e49\u0e44\u0e14\u0e49\u0e23\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e01\u0e32\u0e23\u0e40\u0e2a\u0e19\u0e2d\u0e0a\u0e37\u0e48\u0e2d<\/a> arrangement will rest on what the Supreme Court has actually held.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"frequently-asked-questions\">\u0e04\u0e33\u0e16\u0e32\u0e21\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e1e\u0e1a\u0e1a\u0e48\u0e2d\u0e22<\/h2>\n\n<div id=\"rank-math-faq\" class=\"rank-math-block\">\n<div class=\"rank-math-list\">\n<div id=\"faq-question-1\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question\">\u0e04\u0e33\u0e15\u0e31\u0e14\u0e2a\u0e34\u0e19\u0e02\u0e2d\u0e07\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e0e\u0e35\u0e01\u0e32\u0e21\u0e35\u0e1c\u0e25\u0e1c\u0e39\u0e01\u0e1e\u0e31\u0e19\u0e43\u0e19\u0e1b\u0e23\u0e30\u0e40\u0e17\u0e28\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22\u0e2b\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d\u0e44\u0e21\u0e48?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer\">\n\n<p>Not formally. Thailand is a civil law jurisdiction and a Dika decision binds only the parties to that case. Lower courts nevertheless follow consistent Supreme Court rulings closely, and the Court rarely departs from its own settled interpretation, so the decisions are treated as highly persuasive authority.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-2\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question\">How long does it take to reach the Supreme Court in Thailand?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer\">\n\n<p>A civil case usually takes one to two years at first instance, a year or more on appeal, and one to three years at the Supreme Court, so four to six years in total is common. The petition to the Supreme Court must be filed within one month of the Court of Appeal judgment, and permission is needed in civil cases.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"faq-question-3\" class=\"rank-math-list-item\">\n<h3 class=\"rank-math-question\">What does Dika mean in Thai law?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rank-math-answer\">\n\n<p>Dika (\u0e0e\u0e35\u0e01\u0e32) is the Thai word for the petition to the Supreme Court and, by extension, for the Court itself (San Dika) and its decisions. When a lawyer refers to a Dika followed by a number and year, he or she means a specific Supreme Court judgment identified by its serial number and the Buddhist year in which it was decided.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><p>\u0e14\u0e39\u0e40\u0e1e\u0e34\u0e48\u0e21\u0e40\u0e15\u0e34\u0e21: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-of-appeal\/\">\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e2d\u0e38\u0e17\u0e18\u0e23\u0e13\u0e4c<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-of-first-instance\/\">courts of first instance<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/glossary\/court-fees\/\">court fees<\/a>, and our guides to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/thai-legal-system-explained\/\">\u0e23\u0e30\u0e1a\u0e1a\u0e01\u0e0e\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e32\u0e22\u0e44\u0e17\u0e22<\/a>, , <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/supreme-court-decisions\/\">Supreme Court decisions library<\/a> \u0e41\u0e25\u0e30 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/most-cited-sections-thai-law\/\">the sections Supreme Court judgments cite most<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court of Thailand (\u0e28\u0e32\u0e25\u0e0e\u0e35\u0e01\u0e32, San Dika, also Dika Court or Supreme Court of Justice) is the highest court [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":214,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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ThaiLawOnline","rank_math_description":"Supreme Court Thailand (San Dika): the final court of justice, how Dika decisions are numbered, when an appeal reaches it, and the weight its rulings carry.","rank_math_breadcrumb_title":""},"class_list":["post-6579","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6728,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6579\/revisions\/6728"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thailawonline.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6579"}],"curies":[{"name":"\u0e14\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e40\u0e1a\u0e34\u0e25\u0e22\u0e39\u0e1e\u0e35","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}