Artificial Intelligence and Access to Justice

Introduction

We live in an era with the most number of lawyers that any era has ever witnessed, accessibility of legal education has improved to a great extent, Today the legal system of our country incorporates technology. However, we are still facing delay in justice. The delay is not in the time period of the actual court proceeding but instead it lies in the pending cases in the Indian Courts.

The court system of India is one of the finest in the world, but as we move forward into the world of technology it is essential that the Indian court system evolve to incorporate technology. AI can easily simplify the general court proceedings which seem to be too lengthy of a process. This can further cut down on the time of the proceedings.

AI is often treated as a villain but instead it can be helpful in solving major problems faced by the court systems in India. It can within no time complete all the mundane tasks. It is essential the Artificial Intelligence instead of being seen as a threat to the court system is started to be seen as a boon to rewiring the Court System of India.

In the mid-1950s, John McCarthy, who has been credited as the father of AI, defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. These intelligent machines can be useful in aiding the judges while making decisions of importance. It will be useful in making different stages of trial swift. The time consumption of the court system and the court resources would reduce to a great extent making the system, resources and judges more accessible.

Can Lawyers be replaced by AI?

AI is slowly and gradually shaping our society. The biggest question in such a scenario emerges whether artificial intelligence has enough potential to replace lawyers in the coming future and whether it will be intelligent enough to surpass the wit of lawyers. In numerous areas of human activity technology from its advent has again and again proved itself to be helpful for the human race, whether it be socially or economically but when looking into the field of law it becomes quite questionable if AI can challenge the current standing of lawyers in the justice mechanism of the country.

The role of Artificial Intelligence in the field of law will be profitable as it won’t cause the dismiss of legal experts or lawyers from the system. It will instead make justice more accessible to the general public. It will make the whole process of justice delivery much smoother and swifter in turn catering to a large population within the same span of time which it previously lay hold of to cater to a much larger population. AI won’t affect the carriers or providers of justice instead it will make it easy for them to help in the provision of justice. The role of AI isn’t limited to a single dimension of justice instead the affect of AI on the justice system will be multi-dimensional and will have an impact mostly positive on each and every person or professional involved in the system of justice delivery.

Replacement of role of lawyers in the system of justice is an idea of great controversy. The wit and brain power used by lawyers is not something that can easily be copied or get away with through a simple machine. AI can for sure copy intelligence but whether it can copy intellectual ability of humans is a big question mark. The AI might be helpful in getting through with cases involving objectivity but cases with higher stakes and complex plots and blurred lines of facts and laws are something which are beyond the capabilities of any machine.

The profession of lawyers is such that it can never be dominated by Artificial Intelligence or any kind of machine as the profession demands easily comprehensible interpretation of laws in complex theoretical cases which any set algorithm or any automation will be unable to achieve. So, it is clear that it will take a really long time and a lot of intelligence on the part of Artificial Intelligence to actually beat the intelligence of lawyers.

Pending cases

One of the biggest issues that Indian Judicial System faces today is the pendency of cases. The amount of pending cases in the Indian courts is one amongst highest in the world. The issue of pending cases is huge and is surely something which can cause havoc or even toppling down of the Indian Judicial System if not paid immediate attention. The pendency of cases is not limited to just one level of the judicial system but it can be seen at all levels irrespective of their hierarchy or jurisdiction. Among all other reasons the main reason for the pendency of cases is that the number of cases that are disposed are far less than the number of cases that are filed every year.

The system asks for an increase in the number of judges but will increasing the number of judges be profitable enough to easily surpass the number of pending cases. Increasing the strength of judges can surely be one way out but it is surely not the only way out. Increasing the strength of judges is one way but it is essential that it is treated as not just the single way out as it is necessary that it is accompanied with other ways, essentially the ways incorporating technology.

How Do Pending Cases Affect the Accessibility of Justice in India?

Pending cases are the major reason in Indian judiciary that makes justice inaccessible to the general public. It takes not just days, months or years instead it takes ages for a case to actually get justice. Justice delivery system becomes extremely complex because of the large number of pending cases it deals. Pendency of cases makes the accessibility to access the Justice System of the Country difficult.

Initially the accessibility of justice was an issue for the masses as they weren’t very well aware and literate to access it but with the advent of time and increase in the literacy rate of the country people became aware of judiciary and ways to access the Judicial System of the country. The power of literate people to access the justice system also became one of the biggest issue that justice system today faces as there are more literate people hence more cases are being reported. The filing of more cases caused the already over burdened system even more over burdened in turn hindering the accessibility of the justice system.

Statistics and the Pending Cases

Stats will be of great help in providing an insight into the actual pending case situation in India. Stats have for long provided to get deeper and better insights into such topics which usually seem to be of less concern at the surface level but when looked upon with stats prove to be a huge impending problem.

According to the data collected in 2019 the pendency of cases in India’s judiciary has significantly increased, with over 3.5 crore cases pending across the Supreme Court, High Courts, and subordinate courts. Of these, 87% of the backlog is in subordinate courts, followed by 12.5% in High Courts, and 0.2% in the Supreme Court. Notably, 32 lakh cases have been pending for over 10 years, with 8.3 lakh cases in High Courts and 24 lakh in subordinate courts. The number of undertrials in prisons has more than doubled compared to convicts, largely due to delayed judicial processes. The judiciary’s capacity to handle cases is further hindered by high vacancy rates, with 37% of judicial positions vacant in High Courts and 25% in subordinate courts as of 2017.

Backlog of Cases in Allahabad High court

As it can be clearly inferred from the data provided above that all courts across the country are facing the burden of pending cases including the very prestigious High Courts of the country but amongst all these High Courts one High Court that has the most number of pending cases and has surpassed all other High Courts when it comes to delayed justice delivery is the Allahabad High Court. According to a news article Allahabad High Court currently has a backlog of around 1million cases. The average time taken by Allahabad High Court to deliver judgements for most cases is more than 10 years. Data from the National Judicial Data Grid shows that the Allahabad High Court currently has 10,32,746 cases pending. Of these, over 4,70,000 cases are pending criminal appeals and 10.2 per cent of these are over 20 years old.  Allahabad High Court here sets itself as an epitome for the phrase “justice delayed is justice denied”.

• A case awaiting it’s judgement for 34 long years

On 26 August 2022, the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction and imprisonment of Ishrat, who had mutilated the private parts of a four-year-old girl in 1988. The court dismissed his appeal against the sentences handed down by the Kanpur sessions court, which had convicted him under Sections 324 (causing hurt) and 354 (assault to outrage modesty) of the IPC in October 1992. The High Court emphasized the brutality of the crime, describing it as an act driven by “severe sexual lust and sadistic approach,” and ruled that Ishrat did not deserve leniency. The court also criticized the state for not appealing the lenient sentence, noting the public prosecutor’s failure to challenge the short-term punishment. Ishrat had been sentenced to three years for Section 324 and two years for Section 354, with both sentences running separately. The court reaffirmed the lower court’s decision, stating that the evidence proved the gravity of the offense beyond reasonable doubt.

The flaw in the whole scenario is that it took 34 years for the court to come up with a judgement for a case. The actual case happened in the year 1988 and court came up with its judgement in the year 2022. This presents us with the clear view of the backlog and the slow pace of proceedings in one of the major High Courts of the country, The Allahabad High Court.

The biggest question that we face here is that whether the delayed justice serve any purpose. Substantially it might serve any purpose but fully it truly doesn’t. If we currently look at the status of courts and understand if whether they are paying heed to an issue of such great importance then we’ll understand that for sure they are taking decisions on making the process swift for the fresh cases. The main problem is that the issue of clearing the pending cases that have been lying unattended for years. Clearing those cases is essential to make room for the newer cases. Judges are under excess work pressure and are working tirelessly to decrease the number of pending cases and ease down the backlog. However, looking at the backlog of Allahabad High Court it is honestly, manually impossible to ease out this backlog anytime soon.

The situation faced by Allahabad High court and all other High Courts can be resolved through the use of AI. AI can prove to be of great help in not just clearing the backlog but also in making the current proceedings for the fresh cases swifter.

AI and backlog of pending cases

Artificial Intelligence will make the whole process much smoother and will ease in increasing the speed of judgment delivery further making sure that the backlog is cleared in the most less time consuming and efficient way. According to a famous news website Indian Judiciary is facing a backlog of 5o million cases currently and it is believed that AI can prove to be a solution to this huge problem of backlog face by Indian Judicial system.

Artificial Intelligence will be useful to the Indian Judiciary in not just one aspect but in more than one aspect. AI is playing an increasingly significant role in the Indian judiciary, streamlining tasks like case prioritization, categorization, scheduling, document analysis, and outcome prediction. Notable instances include the use of AI in the recent cases can be seen. In the case of Jaswinder Singh v. State of Punjab, where ChatGPT was consulted for broader legal insights, and in the case of Md Zakir Hussain v. State of Manipur, where AI assisted in researching service rules for Village Defence Force personnel.

Former Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has been a vocal advocate for incorporating technology, highlighting AI’s potential in case sorting and motor accident compensation calculations, as well as improving access to digital judgment libraries. The Indian government is in support of including AI in the proceedings of the court. The Indian Government is also backing this push by investing ₹5,000 crore in AI computing power and another ₹2,000 crore to support AI startups, signalling strong commitment to leveraging AI in the judiciary and beyond.

Conclusion

AI is often treated as a villain but instead it can be helpful in solving major problems faced by the court systems in India. It can within no time complete all the mundane tasks. It is essential the Artificial Intelligence instead of being seen as a threat to the court system is started to be seen as a boon to rewiring the Court System of India. Indian Judiciary needed this transformation and is going through this transformation. This transformation in the system of judiciary is essential and in all conditions it will prove to be profitable for the judicial system and at the same time to the general public.

Author: Sanya Bajpai, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to [email protected] or at IIPRD. 

References

• https://centreforpublicimpact.org/insights/joel-tito-ai-justiceaccessed
• https://warwicklegal.com/news/627/india-role-of-artificial-intelligence-in-justice-delivery-system
• https://centreforpublicimpact.org/resource-hub/how-ai-can-improve-access-to-justice/
• https://theprint.in/judiciary/34-yrs-after-appeal-a-judgment-allahabad-hc-has-backlog-of-over-1-million-cases-heres-why/1111923/
• https://njdg.ecourts.gov.in/hcnjdg_v2/
• https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/lucknow-news/hc-upholds-conviction-of-man-for-mutilating-private-parts-of-minor-girl-101661537407956.html
• https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-tech/can-ai-reduce-the-backlog-of-cases-researchers-say-yes/article67472941.ece
• https://indiaai.gov.in/article/from-backlogs-to-breakthroughs-the-integration-of-ai-in-india-s-judiciary