Supreme Court warns AI-generated judgments will amount to misconduct | India News
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday warned that judicial orders based on AI-generated, non-existent judgments would amount to misconduct and expressed serious concern over the use of artificial intelligence in court proceedings, not just errors in decision-making.A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradh said it will examine the matter in detail and issue notices to Attorney General R Venkataramani, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and the Bar Council of India, PTI reported. Senior advocate Shyam Divan has been appointed to assist the court.“We consider the trial court’s deployment of AI-generated non-existent, fake or synthetic impeachment judgments and try to examine its consequences and accountability as it directly affects the integrity of the judicial process,” the bench said in its February 27 order.“At the outset, we must declare that taking a decision based on such non-existent and false allegations is not an error. It is a malpractice and legal consequences will follow. It is imperative that we examine this issue in more detail,” it added, according to PTI.The issue arose during the hearing of a petition challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s January order in a case seeking an injunction. The Apex Court noted that a trial court had relied on certain judgments while dismissing objections to an Advocate-Commissioner’s report. The petitioners contended that the judgments cited are non-existent and AI-generated.The High Court admitted that the judgments cited were AI-generated, recorded a word of caution, but proceeded to decide the matter on merits and dismissed the civil revision petition. Later the petitioners approached the Supreme Court.Issuing notice, the apex court directed that pending disposal of the special leave petition, the trial court “shall not proceed on the basis of the Advocate-Commissioner’s report” and posted the matter for March 10. In a separate hearing on February 17, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant expressed concern over lawyers filing petitions drafted using AI tools citing non-existent cases like “Mercy v Mankind” while hearing a PIL seeking guidelines on political speech.
