Are AI judges going to deliver judgments in Indian Courtrooms?

In the past week, news of integration of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the judicial sphere has been making a lot of buzz. It has been suggested that India is all set to introduce 'robotic judges' to deal with routine cases and help judges in quickly processing cases. 

Reportedly district judges are being trained to utilize artificial intelligence and such training courses are being held internationally. The goal of this infusion is ethical and efficient use of AI to speed up justice without replacing human judges.

A 'robo judge’ was first used in Estonia in 2019, where experiments began with AI-enabled verdicts in low-level disputes. Later, China also introduced AI-assisted verdict delivery model forward, deploying machine learning tools in millions of cases.

The real question is whether there is any confirmation from the Modi government on this. While there has been no specific confirmation from the Centre on this, last year speaking at the 75 years celebrations of the Supreme Court of India, Prime Minister Modi had said, "The third phase of the e-Courts project was also approved. We are moving towards creating a unified technology platform. Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Optical Character Recognition will be used under this. We will be able to analyze pending cases and even predict future litigations. Technology will integrate police, forensics, jails, and courts, and will speed up their work as well. We are moving towards a justice system that will be fully future-ready.".

Earlier in February this year, Ministry of Law and Justice had issued a press release exploring the transformative role of AI in India's judiciary and law enforcement, highlighting its applications, impact, and future potential in ensuring a more efficient, transparent, and citizen-centric justice system.

Referring to e-Courts Project (Phase III) intitated under the aegis of Supreme Court of India for which the Government of India has allocated a total of ₹7210 Crore, the Ministry has said that ₹53.57 Crore is specifically earmarked for the integration of AI and Blockchain technologies across High Courts in India. This financial commitment underscores the importance of leveraging advanced technology to achieve greater efficiency, transparency, and accessibility in the judicial system. Notably, AI is improving witness testimony analysis and courtroom evidence evaluation. Also, as India’s judicial system operates primarily in English, creating barriers for non-English-speaking litigants, AI-driven legal translation tools are being deployed to make legal documents and judgments accessible.