Transforming Justice: The Role and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Indian Judiciary

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is increasingly recognised as an important instrument of judicial modernisation and institutional reform. In India, persistent case pendency, procedural delays, linguistic diversity, voluminous judicial records, and limitations in judicial and administrative resources create significant demands upon the justice-delivery system. AI offers potential to enhance judicial efficiency, accessibility, and administrative functioning. The Indian judiciary has initiated several AI-enabled mechanisms, including the Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (“SUVAS”), Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court Efficiency (“SUPACE”), AI-assisted transcription, National Judicial Data Grid (“NJDG”), e-Filing systems, and other digital judicial platforms. The Supreme Court’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence and Judiciary further identifies applications in case management, legal research, translation, transcription, document analysis, scheduling, and administrative automation. This research examines the transformative potential of AI within the Indian judicial process and the legal, constitutional, ethical, and institutional safeguards necessary for its responsible implementation. It analyses machine learning, natural language processing, optical character recognition, computer vision, predictive analytics, and generative AI in relation to judicial and administrative functions. The study further explores their potential application in case triage, scheduling, legal research, document management, routine drafting, multilingual services, alternative dispute resolution, and procedural-delay detection. Concurrently, it examines risks concerning algorithmic bias, opacity, AI hallucinations, fabricated legal authorities, privacy, confidentiality, cybersecurity, deepfakes, and excessive technological reliance. The paper argues that AI should function as an assistive and augmentative mechanism rather than an autonomous adjudicatory authority. A rights-based, human-supervised, and institutionally governed framework incorporating secure datasets, verification, auditability, transparency, accountability, and professional training is essential to ensure that technological advancement strengthens the rule of law, judicial independence, procedural fairness, and the integrity of adjudication.