Supreme Court Releases Draft Report on Using Artificial Intelligence in Indian Courtrooms

The Supreme Court of India has put out a draft report on the deployment of artificial intelligence in courtrooms, marking a significant step by the country's apex court toward formalising the judiciary's relationship with emerging technology. The report opens a consultation period during which legal experts, technologists and civil society groups are expected to weigh in.

AI tools are already being explored in Indian courts in limited ways — for translation of judgments into regional languages, for case-listing and scheduling, and for legal research assistance. The draft report is expected to lay out a framework for how these tools can be expanded, what safeguards are needed, and where human judicial discretion must remain paramount.

The exercise reflects a tension courts worldwide are navigating: AI can dramatically improve the speed and accessibility of justice, but unchecked use risks encoding bias, eroding transparency and undermining the principle that judicial decisions must be explicable and accountable. India's judiciary, which carries a backlog of tens of millions of pending cases, has strong practical incentives to find efficiencies.

The Supreme Court's engagement with AI policy is also significant because it positions the judiciary — not just the legislature or executive — as an active rule-setter in India's AI governance landscape. The draft report's final form will likely influence how subordinate courts across the country eventually approach the same questions.