The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed serious concern over an emerging practice of lawyers filing petitions drafted using artificial intelligence tools that contain non-existent judgments and inaccurate quotations, observing that such conduct is “absolutely uncalled for”.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi made the remarks while hearing a PIL filed by academician Roop Rekha Verma seeking guidelines on political speeches.
During the hearing, Justice Nagarathna informed the bench that she had recently encountered a citation to a non-existent judgment titled “Mercy vs Mankind”. The Chief Justice referred to a similar instance in the court of Justice Dipankar Datta, where “not one but a series of such judgements were cited”.
Justice Nagarathna further observed that in some cases, while the cited judgments do exist, fabricated quotations are attributed to them, making verification difficult.
“It creates an additional burden on the part of the judges,” she said.
The bench noted that some lawyers have begun relying on AI tools to draft petitions and warned against uncritical use of such technology in court filings.
“We are alarmed to reflect that some lawyers have started using AI to draft petitions. It is absolutely uncalled for,” the Chief Justice observed.
Justice Bagchi also expressed concern over what he described as a decline in the quality of legal drafting, particularly in special leave petitions.
He remarked that many SLPs consist largely of lengthy extracts from previous judgments with little independent articulation of legal grounds.
The matter relates to a PIL seeking guidelines on political speeches, on which the court had earlier asked the petitioners to file a fresh plea.
