ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN INDIAN JUDICIAL LANDSCAPE: A PANACEA

FOR AN OVERBURDENED JUDICIARY?

Artificial intelligence first came to be known in 1956, and its growing use in the 21st century is
transforming almost every industry, even the legal systems. The use of technology in the legal
field is known as legalTech. Today, one of the biggest problems faced by the Indian judiciary is
the alarming rate of judicial disputes. As per National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) 3,89,41,148
cases are pending at the District and Taluka levels and 58,43,113 are still unresolved at the high
courts. Every year a backlog of 7.3 lakh cases adds on to the judiciary. This much backlog is
taking a toll on the judicial system, ultimately diluting people’s trust in the system. With respect
to this, the usage of technologies such as AI, blockchain and data analytics can be highly
beneficial for the judiciary as these systems can impersonate human intelligence to complete
tasks that require application of mind.

The supreme court constituted the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of
Information and Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary in 2005 with the aim to
digitally transform the legal sector. During the Covid19 pandemic access to justice became
almost impossible due to the closure of courts. Therefore the supreme court under Article 142
exercised its plenary power to direct all high courts to frame a mechanism to make use of
technology during the pandemic. Henceforth, came the concept of virtual courts which aims to
eliminate lawyers in the court for a faster and efficient adjudication of cases. SUVAS-Supreme
Court Vidhik Anuvaad software is the first initiative taken by the judiciary to introduce AI into
the judicial system. The software is capable of translating legal documents and orders to 9 other
dialect languages. Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency SUPACE is
another AI driven tool that collects relevant facts and laws and submits them to the judge. It is
not capable of taking decisions but only to process facts and to provide them to the judges.
Currently, the software is on a trial basis in Delhi and Bombay High courts.

AI in legal field: Application and benefits

AI can be applied in multiple areas of legal sectors which includes due diligence, legal analytics,
predictive technology, contract review, intellectual property, document automation, electronic
billing etc. A large number of contracts are entered everyday during the course of business.
Lawyers and firms have to review these contracts on redlines and blacklines and advise the client
individually. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for firms to maintain records of these contracts and
further send them for renewal. For this purpose, AI such as Kira Systems and Ravn comes in
handy. Kira can be used to analyse, extract and review the contracts containing business
information. Ravn is used for organizing and summarising the documents.

Legal research is also a necessity for law students and lawyers to find judicial precedents.
Scrolling and searching may take several hours with no output. Previously the work was done
manually but now students use search engines such as SSC Online, LexisNexis, Westlaw, etc.
However, AI softwares like Casetext and ROSS Intelligence can take it to the next level. ROSS
enables users to ask related questions such as related case laws, recommended readings and
secondary sources while Casetext allows its users to forecast an opposing argument based on the
previous opinions used by lawyers.

Prediction technology is a software which speculates a probable outcome of a suit. Predictive

systems use large amounts of litigation information which may help in deciding whether to settle
the case or not and making the right choices for both the parties. JP Morgan company has been
using this technology in an AI powered program called COIN since 2017 to interpret commercial
loan agreements. The work which took 360,000 lawyer-hours is now done in seconds.
Luminance is another AI powered tool used by UK’s law Firm Slaughter and May. The tool is
used to review the contracts especially in regards to Mergers and acquisitions due diligence.

AI can also help in drafting the legal documents. Most of the contracts have a fixed structure
unless there are some special clauses. However, automated systems are capable of drafting even
the difficult contracts using their specialised tools. For example- Contract Express is an
automation software specialised in drafting contracts which can draft agreements on request of
clients even with special terms and conditions.

Moreover, preparing and presenting a case is a very time consuming process which requires a lot
of paperwork and documentation and wastes the productive time of lawyers. Hence, AIs can be
used to reduce the mechanical workload on lawyers as well as judges, which will eventually
benefit the clients. Otherwise too, manual work always poses a risk of error while the technology
is potentially error free. Therefore, if we distribute the critical work to machines we can save the
erroneous contracts, time and money of the firm. Though bearing the cost of AI installation and
maintenance is high, in the long run it’s highly cost effective.

Concerns related to AI in judiciary

Although AI can bring enormous benefits to the judiciary, it is not devoid of challenges and ill-
effects. One of the major concerns surrounding the use of AI is data protection. Since AI uses
large chunks of data to store and process information it surmounts threat to the security of that
data. These AI systems can be hacked or tampered with to procure critical information
concerning business. A stringent data protection regime is needed to safeguard the individual’s
private data and critical business information. It is also accompanied with a few technical
challenges such as Lack of digitisation of data. The Indian judiciary is still far from going totally
digital with documents and paperworks. AI requires software muscle power for legal processes
therefore, its adoption may require huge investments. Complexity of legal reasoning may also act
as a potential barrier in implementation of Legal Technologies. But these barriers could be
overcome by public-private partnerships, technical cooperation and continuous usage.

The technology also poses some socio-legal challenges such as mass unemployment, Ethical
Concerns, income inequality etc. According to estimates by Deloitte 39% of jobs (100,000)
legal-related jobs stand to be automated by 2036 but the same report also shows that there has
been an overall increase of approximately 80,000, most of which are higher skilled and better
paid. Such concerns are unfounded as though AI makes repetitive jobs redundant, it blossoms the
career in cyber laws with increasing demand of privacy lawyers, technical clerks for online filing
of petitions etc. Another significant contention is that it may cause wider gaps in income equality
as the big budget firms would be able to afford the technology while the small firms and start-
ups may not. The richer companies will get their work done quickly which would make them
even more rich. This would require government intervention to take proactive steps to ensure
that the technology reaches every strata of the society.
 Conclusion

Technological advancement is changing the face of industries, even the legal industry. It is hard
to consider a bright future of the legal world without using artificial intelligence programs.
Already, the legal industry is on its way to digitisation which has become a necessity especially
since the coronavirus pandemic. The judiciary faces challenges on many grounds like human
rights violations, data protection, investment issues, privacy concerns etc. while adopting AI in
the system but it must be mindful of the fact that AI which is hidden in the black box has the
potential to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our system. Creating a strongroom for
the technology will also require governments to enact legislations, statues and procedural
regulations qua constitutional machinery. In the long run AI integration in legal system will
lighten the burden of the judiciary manifolds, concomitantly fortifying our justice system and
people’s faith in the system.