The Digital Bench: Why Lawyers need to adopt the AI in the Changing Indian Judicial System

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only just beginning to transform the legal practice in India, and even the Supreme Court is at the vanguard of such change. With the further digitization of legal operations, the use of AI and Machine Learning (ML) tools has become no longer a far-fetched idea but a reality, entering the Supreme Court of the country. Such transformation is not only transforming the ways of case management and courtroom procedure but also requires the legal professional to keep up with fast-evolving technologies to remain relevant in a technology-driven legal environment.

The Indian Supreme Court has been playing an active role in incorporating AI to enhance efficiency in the court and facilitate access to justice. The Court made a first-of-its-kind move by employing AI-based technology as it started transcribing live arguments in the Constitution Bench hearings. This project, in collaboration with Technology Enabled Resolution (TERES) Bangalore-based start-up, aims at providing transcripts of court events in real-time- further enhancing accuracy, accountability, and accessibility of the proceedings. 

Coupled with transcription has been the attention of the Court in ensuring that its rulings are more accessible through multilingual publications. With close partnering with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), AI-based tools have already translated more than 36,000 judgements into Hindi and thousands more into 16 other languages of the country. Now these translations can be found in the eSCR portal of the Supreme Court, and this materially increased the possibility of understanding and grasping the decisions of courts by the population, particularly in those areas where English is not the language of common communication.

The use of AI in the detection of defects when filing cases is another great development. The Supreme Court, in cooperation with IIT Madras, has incorporated AI into its electronic filing system to identify errors in the documents that are filed. An example of such a system has already been given to 200 Advocates-on-Record to be responded to, indicating a considerable progression towards computerization in legal papers and simplification of the filing procedure. Not only does this accelerate the pace of court operations, but equally, it maintains the constitutional commitment of the dispensation of justice within a reasonable time.

The Court is also trying out data and metadata extraction by using AI tools, which have been tested into being incorporated with the Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS). The tools are focused towards the more efficient organization of legal data, which can then facilitate the process of litigation management by various participants, including judges, court personnel and even more by lawyers. Notably, although AI promises to assist the various elements of court management and procedural performance, it is not employed in the decision-making part. This difference is essential to a sense of judicial independence and the integrity of legal thinking.

One of the most outstanding breakthroughs is Supreme Court Portal, which is aid in court efficiency (SUPACE) is an AI-based tool that assists judges with filtering the material in the case, finding precedents, and extracting facts in the case. At the experimental stage, SUPACE can transform the field of legal research, allowing judges and the staff of their offices to save a lot of time spent on the manual review of documents. The implementation of the tools will soon be faster with the procurement of more technological infrastructures like the Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and strong Graphic Processing Units (GPUs).

Such changes are indicators that AI will no longer be viewed as an auxiliary instrument but one fundamental aspect of the legal process. In the coming exodus, attorneys should start becoming technologically literate. Professionals in law can no longer afford to use only the conventional forms of researching, drafting and presenting cases in courts. Rather, they would have to consider the platform of SCC OnLine, Manupatra, LegitQuest, and the emerging AI-based platforms of Adalat AI and Bharat Law AI that help conduct faster and more precise legal research with the help of intelligent search algorithms and data analytics.

Moreover, the Indian courts use of AI is consistent with the world trends. Some nations like China have already introduced AI-based cyber courts, whereas Germany resorts to such software as OLGA which helps them extract and categorize metadata. The practices with international implication strengthen the premises that, with appropriate use, AI has a capacity to increase judicial efficiency, not at the cost of fairness and due process. Indian legal practitioners should be well versed with such world innovations and ensure that they learn lessons to ensure that they are competitive and abreast with what is happening around.

Nevertheless, the coming of AI is associated not only with the opportunities but also with difficulties which should be taken into consideration by legal professionals. Factors like algorithm discrimination, data protection, and the digital gap between big-city and rural attorneys may get in the way of their fair use. Besides, the application of AI can play a role in producing unjust results unintentionally or escalating the pre-existing disparities within the justice system unless it is trained and regulated with a solid ethical code. 

Law schools and continuing legal education programs are important players in affecting this change. Legal technology, data ethics, and the use of AI in law modules have now to be incorporated into the curricula. This will equip the future lawyers to enhance their interaction with technology as active participants and not mere consumers, which allows one to influence one’s application on legal practices. Similarly, law practices ought to make an investment in training associated lawyers and partners regarding the effective performance of legal AI tools, e-discovery systems as well as predictive analytics.

This article is authored by Mahashweta Mitra, who participated at the “Law Over Coffee” workshop organized by Lets Learn Law. The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.