“AI5, ARTICLE 3, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN INDIAN JUDICIAL

LANDSCAPE: A PANACEA FOR AN OVERBURDENED JUDICIARY”

“Artificial intelligence, judiciary, technology, supreme court, justice”

ABSTRACT

AI technology has impregnated almost every fathomable industry in our country i.e healthcare,
education, agriculture, financial services etc. even the legal sector. Our judiciary with a backlog
of 7.8 lakh cases per year and 20 judges per 10 lakh people in the country is overburdened by the
weight of soaring numbers of cases. In this respect, artificial intelligence which is described as
systems that can impersonate human intelligence can prove instrumental in quick disposal of
cases.

In this article, Pranjali Joshi of New Law college, Pune analyses the applicability of artificially
intelligent tools in the legal industry and gives an insight on the usage of AI to mitigate the
growing burden on Indian courts. Further, the author addresses the concerns about its usage in
the legal industry and provides solutions for overcoming them.

ARTICLE

Artificial intelligence first came to be known in 1956. Since then it is growing in use and
acceptance especially in the 21st century. It is transmogrifying every industry and even the legal
one. The use of technology in the legal field is known as LegalTech. McCarthy defines AI as
“the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. These systems have the ability to
impersonate human intelligence to complete tasks that require application of mind.

Today, one of the biggest problem plaguing the Indian judiciary is the alarming rate of 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. However, the usage of technologies such as AI,
blockchain and data analytics can be highly beneficial for the judiciary.
The technology has been already been accepted in the Indian legal ecosystem with Cyril
Amarchand Mangaldas as India’s first law firm to incorporate AI in legal practice. The supreme
court is also on its way to integrate the technology in regular court proceedings. In 2005, The SC
first constituted the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and
Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary with the aim to digitally transform the legal
sector. But during the coronavirus pandemic the 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 case laws, recommend 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. They 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 threat to the security of that data looms.
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 of the technology.

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.