CJI Surya Kant Meets German Federal Court Chief, Discusses AI In Courts And Cross-Border Mediation

Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant held a bilateral meeting with Ulrich Herrmann, Presiding Judge of Germany's Federal Court of Justice, at Karlsruhe on Wednesday, opening a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence in courts, cross-border mediation, and closer judicial ties between India and Germany.

The meeting brought together two very different legal systems for a rare and detailed comparative exchange, one rooted firmly in common law, the other in the civil law tradition, each trying to solve strikingly similar problems of pendency, consistency and access to justice.

CJI Surya Kant began by congratulating the German court on setting up its Seventh Criminal Senate in Leipzig from July 1, 2026, calling it a timely response to rising appellate workload. He then drew out the contrast between the two systems. "India follows a common-law tradition with one integrated judicial hierarchy, while Germany has a civil-law system with separate branches of federal jurisdiction," he said, adding that such differences make the comparison genuinely useful.

He walked the German delegation through India's judicial architecture, its District and Trial Courts, 25 High Courts, and the Supreme Court at the apex, along with the High Courts' writ and supervisory powers under Articles 226 and 227. He also referred to Article 141, which makes Supreme Court rulings binding on all courts, and to the basic-structure doctrine laid down in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case.

Sharing numbers, the CJI noted that as of July 1, 2026, the Supreme Court was functioning with 35 judges against a sanctioned strength of 38, while High Courts had 781 judges against a sanctioned 1,122. By comparison, he pointed out, Germany's Federal Court of Justice works through 13 Civil Senates and seven Criminal Senates, a more specialised structure than India's roster-based, generalist model.

Technology formed a major part of the discussion. The CJI said India's push for digitisation was never only about modernising courts but about making them more accessible and transparent. He spoke about Phase III of the eCourts Mission Mode Project, backed by an outlay of Rs 7,210 crore, and about tools such as SUPACE and LegRAA for legal research, SUVAS for translating judgments into 16 regional languages, and SuSahay, a conversational interface for citizens tracking their cases. But he was clear about where the line lies.

"Artificial intelligence may augment judicial reasoning, but it cannot substitute the judicial conscience," the CJI said, adding that the Supreme Court's proposed AI regulations would keep functions like assessing witness credibility, flight risk and bail eligibility firmly outside AI's reach.

Mediation was the other major theme, and one the CJI described as a personal priority. He spoke of the Mediation Act, 2023, India's first dedicated statutory framework for the practice, which also recognises international and online mediation. He discussed the rise of online dispute resolution and hybrid formats such as med-arb-med in cross-border commercial matters, framing arbitration and mediation as complementary rather than competing tools, one settling legal rights, the other helping parties reach outcomes they can actually live with.

He also flagged India's growing mediation infrastructure, institutional centres, Lok Adalats, Digital Lok Adalats, and the Supreme Court's recent Samadhan Samaroh initiative, as areas ripe for India-Germany exchange on enforcement of mediated settlements and training of mediators.

The CJI welcomed a concept note from Hamburg's Hanseatic Higher Regional Court proposing structured judicial exchanges, including study visits, workshops and cooperation between registries on e-filing, cybersecurity and judgment publication. He suggested the National Judicial Academy could work with German institutions on digital evidence and cybercrime. As a next step, both sides agreed to designate points of contact, with a possible MoU to follow once scope and modalities are worked out.

Closing the meeting, CJI Kant said both judiciaries carry the shared burden of protecting judicial independence and public trust even as technology reshapes their work and litigants' expectations evolve, adding that administrative and technological reform can support, but never replace, careful adjudication and human judgment.

Inputs from ANI