Abstract
Heavy caseload, high cost of the legal services, and acute lack of resources on judicial opinion are some problems India faces in her legal system that skew access to justice for this type of population in India. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence could be the solution to such systemic problems. AI tools will now benefit case management software, legal research platforms, and multilingual translation applications to make the judiciary efficient, transparent, and affordable. This article discusses the adoption of AI technologies by the Supreme Court with its SUVAS and SUPACE initiatives, eCourts project, and AI-enabled legal assistants. However, it also discusses adoption issues in AI that include bias, lack of transparency, privacy concerns, and resistance from conservative elements within the legal profession. Ethical standards should safeguard fair process, data integrity, and accountability to help ensure the best use of AI potential. Through careful regulation and partnership, AI will have an immense impact on facilitating access to justice for all in India and making its legal system fair and more effective.
Keywords
Artificial Intelligence, Indian Judiciary, Access to Justice, Case Backlogs, Legal Technology, E-Courts, SUPACE, SUVAS, Judicial Efficiency, Ethical AI, Legal Innovation.
Introduction
India’s legal system still grapples with many major challenges affecting the citizen’s access to justice. With a population currently in excess of 1.4 billion, the burdens on the judicial system are extreme, resulting in very long delays in decisions on cases often taking years or even decades to be disposed of. This has resulted from a serious shortage of judges and other court staff, keeping litigants waiting for long periods.
The high cost of services from the legal professions, among others attorney fees, obviously creates a heavy impediment for the poor. This generally limits access to proper legal resources to great parts of society since they cannot afford necessary assistance by lawyers, and, as a result, they start litigating in court inadequately and unjustly.
However, the last few years have really seen the impact change this nasty trend with the advent of Artificial Intelligence. With AI, new technologies come forth in a bid to make the law system more efficient and also cheaper. From all indications, the use of AI may solve some major systemic problems of the judiciary across all jurisdictions.
Beyond this, AI applications can democratize legal knowledge because information, related to understanding the rights of individuals or furthering inquiry in relation to any legal complexities, becomes accessible. Companies and start-ups are now making AI-based tools to offer legal support to smooth retrieval of information and analytical functions both for the legal professionals and at large. The AI application now opens potential avenues to transform access to justice in the Indian context. As per the article, this is making available AI to cater to the empowerment of access to justice through efforts by the Supreme Court to facilitate free flow of justice among citizens.
Emerging Requirements for Artificial Intelligence in Indian Courts
The judiciary is very critically important while dispensing justice in any country. However, Indian legal system faces a huge challenge due to the sheer population of the country, which has been witnessing a constant rise in the number of cases filed year after year. This corresponding number has proved to be a heavy burden on the judiciary. Millions of cases are still pending in all the courts, from the lower to the Supreme Court due to the scarcity of judges.
Some of the adopted measures include Alternative Dispute Resolution where some outdated laws are abolished. In all of these measures, however, this is an underdeveloped potential that relates to new developments such as AI in providing a solution to these problems.
Manual processes in Indian judicial delivery usher into inefficiency and delays in the delivery of justice. Innovative approaches are a need to make the justice system sustainable as well as effective. Case backlog reduction and faster delivery of justice can be another such innovation through AI incorporation into the judicial process.
Some recent contributions to Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Legal System
- Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS)
Recently, the government has launched an AI application known as SUVAS. It can translate legal documents and orders from English into nine regional languages. This is the first major step taken by the judiciary towards accepting artificial intelligence.
- Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court Efficiency (SUPACE)
Recently, the Supreme Court has come out with SUPACE: an AI-based tool to capture relevant facts and legal precedents to help a judge make decisions. Case-specific insights are shaped to the reason and requirement of the judge, increasing judicial efficiency .
- Official Multilingual Mobile Application of the Supreme Court of India
It has launched a multilingual mobile application in association with the National Informatics Centre for the Supreme Court. This will provide citizens easy, authentic, and, as at one click access to information about their cases, judgments, important circulars, display board updates, and many other important details.
- E-Courts
The most notable judicial reforms undertaken have been the e-court initiative through which court orders and judgments are freely available online. They aim to speed up case resolution, make records management easier, ensure proof documentation is reliable, and add transparency to court operations.
- AI System Developed by IIT Kharagpur Reads Court Orders
AI-based Court Order Judgment Analysis System IIT Kharagpur develops AI-based system to analyze court orders and judgments. This uses a machine mechanism by which it is found which laws are violated so useful aid to unravel the meaning of laws.
- Kira Systems by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
The Indian law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with Canadian AI solution Kira Systems have brought AI in the analysis and review of contracts. With such collaboration, the speed of document review increases and accuracy becomes stronger in the legal process.
AI and Legal Services
AI proves to be a game-changer by making justice accessible in the system of India. Here are some practical ways AI is making an impact:
- Simplifying Legal Research
Legal research has long been one of the challenges-it is cumbersome, complex, and daunting for those not familiar with the system. Making it lighter by finding relevant laws and past cases instantaneously, AI tools like chatbots and research platforms make it accessible. Such platforms break down complex legal information in a way that is accessible to everyone-not just those legal professionals.
- Easing Case Management
There are so many clerical works in the processes, such as filling documents, date setting for hearings, and following up on case updates, which artificial intelligence can efficiently do away with, hence freeing lawyers and the staff in court to spend more time focusing on what matters. Meanwhile, AI tools may help lawyers identify real-time insights through case data as well as prepare correct legal documents, like contracts or notices, within a less amount of time with fewer errors.
- The urban-rural divide
Distance, cost, and scarcity of resources may be too much to tread on the part of the rural population. But with AI, the bridge would come up now. Indeed, with a mobile app run through AI, villagers sitting in villages can reach out to legal experts, seek advice, and learn about their rights from the mobile phone. It will save time, money, and effort for rural communities to assert their claims more confidently.
- Virtual Legal Assistants in Getting Solutions at All Times
Imagine an assistant to be consulted in case you have legal questions anywhere, anytime. AI-powered chatbots can provide quick answers to fundamental legal queries, help people understand processes, and guide them step by step. These tools make legal knowledge available to everyone so that they can navigate the system better without requiring a lawyer for every small issue.
Challenges in Using Artificial Intelligence in the Legal System
Judicial systems are most likely going to find efficient integration and better decision-making due to AI. Integration is far from being problem-free, though; there are major challenges that need to be addressed for fair and effective integration of AI into the law. The challenges facing that are outlined are as follows:
1.Bias and Fairness Concerns
For an AI system, what it learns is only as good as the data on which it is trained. That historical legal data, if containing biases tends to amplify in AI. This brings quite serious implications in matters of fairness: biased AI can result in discrimination or unfair decisions which potentially infringe fundamental rights.
- Lack of Transparency
Many of the AI algorithms are “black boxes” – that is, their decision-making processes are incomprehensible. It will be challenging to hold an AI accountable for any action whenever its decisions affect people’s lives. For judges and litigants, it is frustrating and problematic that they cannot see how an AI system arrives at its conclusions.
- Privacy and Security Risks
The legal system contains and processes sensitive information and, therefore, protection of the same is vital. AI systems too are vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. If vulnerabilities do exist, key legal data privacy and security may be compromised and heavy implications could follow.
- High Costs and Resource Requirements
Designing, deploying, and maintaining AI systems is extremely costly. Moreover, it should be cheap and scalable to spur wide adoption of AI in courts. Many courts, particularly those in under-resourced areas, would not have the kind of resources needed to do so.
5.Technical Constraints and Failures :
After all, AI is not foolproof, and there may be instances when it gets everything wrong. For example, it might interpret wrong legal statute interpretation, failure to identify changes in law, or technical glitches that lead to wrong predictions or even decision-making. Such errors could have deep impacts, especially on some cases of law for complex issues.
- Resistance among Judges :
The success of AI in the judiciary is enormously founded on its receptivity among judges. While the younger judges seem to be amenable to using AI, some of their elder colleagues have a little trepidation over it. According to them, AI lacks emotional intelligence in dealing with cases where human interaction is involved. Many would rather pass judgment on their own than let decisions be taken by “cold, emotionless machines.” This skepticism throws up a challenge in balancing how efficient AI can be with the humanness required in the application of justice.
Some Ethical Principles Governing Artificial Intelligence in Legal Practice
- Protection of Fundamental Rights
The rights to privacy, equality and right to a hearing be permitted to take precedence over the AI system’s operation in legal service delivery. Such rights should find their place in the design and implementation of AI tools’ policy.
- Bias-free Treatment
The AI should be able to counter flaws of the data they are trained on and biases inherent in the algorithms that control them to provide right results without bias.
- Data Security
The judicial information should be processed from certified, tamper-proof sources in secure environments; strong security measures should exist which can prevent breakage or manipulation of the sensitive information.
- Impact on Transparency
AI systems shall clearly explain their processes and decisions. This involves allowing external audits of data, assumptions, and reasoning. This way, the concept of accountability and judicial review gets enhanced.
- Ethical Use of AI
In doing so, it would be apt to argue that AI can become a trustworthy, fair, and safe device for use in legal systems, facilitating access to justice with accountability and public trust.
Work of the Supreme Court toward Enhancing Access to Justice through AI
The Indian Supreme Court has gradually adapted the form of technological and digital transformations, including AI, in which Justice can reach nearer to people and can make it more accessible and efficient. A few such steps taken in this direction are as follows:
- E-Courts for Digital Transformation
The Supreme Court of India adopted the E-Courts Project to better streamline and digitalize court processes. All this-web-based case management, electronic filing of documents, and real-time case tracking-places case law, information, and services at the fingertips of the legal consumer. Finally, in February 2023, it was also reported that Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud underlined the role of technology in judiciary while declaring the establishment of “E-Seva Kendra” in all courts to make the legal system accessible even to citizens living in a remote village.
- Virtual Hearings:
Perhaps the biggest right given to the Supreme Court by the COVID-19 pandemic was virtual hearings. It allowed anybody to appear in court from anywhere in the world, thereby making sure the judiciary did not even experience a slight slowdown during trying times and remained accessible to those who otherwise would face a cost or logistics challenge in traveling to courtrooms.
- Legal Advising Chatbots
General legal queries, the Supreme Court is also researching the use of AI-based chatbots to assist the public. Through these, users could acquire processes such as how to file a complaint or what rights individuals are entitled to, making the system simple and easily accessible to all .
Conclusion
Artificial Intelligence does hold much promise in the access of justice in India through innovative solutions to long-standing issues and problems. The future would, however, be able to witness a transformative role of AI in the system of law only if it were instituted wisely with appropriate regulations so that everybody enjoys equal access to justice.
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WRITTEN BY RICHA PANDEY
