Supreme Court Justice Manmohan stated at the India Law AI and Tech Summit 2025 in Delhi that artificial intelligence could resolve over 60% of India's pending litigation by automating routine "small-ticket" matters like traffic challans, check-bounce cases, and minor offenses. These repetitive disputes, he noted, require minimal judicial reasoning and clog courts, allowing AI platforms to handle them while freeing infrastructure for complex 40% of cases. AI could also cluster thousands of similar disputes, such as land acquisition matters, enabling single rulings for mass disposal.
The Supreme Court has piloted SU-PACE, an AI tool acting as a "digital research assistant" that reads case files, extracts issues, summarizes content, and flags relevant precedents without delivering judgments. Justice Manmohan emphasized a hybrid model where technology manages clerical burdens, but warned of risks including hallucinated case laws, algorithmic bias, and privacy breaches that demand safeguards before scaling. Human judges' integrity remains irreplaceable for justice delivery.
Dr Lalit Bhasin, President of the Society of Indian Law Firms, cautioned against over-reliance, citing interviews where young lawyers submitted identical AI-generated drafts showing diminished critical thinking. Despite tech advances, pendency exceeds 5 crore cases as of 2025, up from 5 crore in 2023-24, driven by excessive, outdated, overlapping, and poorly drafted laws that burden the system.
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Bhasin urged using AI as a tool, not a substitute for human intellect, as structural reforms in legislation are essential alongside technology to address delays harming economy and citizens. The summit highlighted AI's potential to transform judicial efficiency amid chronic backlogs nearing crisis levels.
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