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CJI Chandrachud J20 Summit JudiciaryTechnology

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The Chief Justice of India (CJI), while addressing the J20 Summit in Brazil, said that judges are neither princes nor sovereigns who are above the demands of explainability. He said judges are service providers and enablers of societies’ rights. Stressing the need for transparency, inclusivity and use of technology to enhance judicial efficiency, the CJI said our courts are no longer seen as imposing ’empires’ but as democratic forums for discussion.

Speaking at the J20 Summit, the CJI said technology has renegotiated our relationship with the law and the institutions that enforce it.

He said judges may be the only public officials who sit on an elevated platform, punishing contempt and making important decisions about the lives of others in discreet private chambers, without fear of electoral losses. As judges, we are neither princes nor princes who are ourselves above the demands of interpretability. We are service providers and enabler societies that affirm rights. The decision itself and the road to it must be transparent, understandable to everyone with or without legal training and broad enough for everyone to follow along,” the CJI said.

“We are now having conversations about the explainability of the decision-making mechanism of artificial intelligence – meaning that AI cannot decide in a black box and that there must be an explanation as to why it decided the way it did.”

The CJI explained that there are two crucial areas where digitization and technology can help create better justice delivery mechanisms. “One is streamlining the pre-decision processes and the other is the post-decision measures that improve access to and involvement in the decision itself. Courts in all jurisdictions use technologies ranging from basic organizing to advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. “

The Supreme Court’s case management system is the largest in the world

Speaking about the achievements of Indian courts in technology and digital transformation, the CJI said the Supreme Court of India Case Management System is developed on the basis of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and is the largest case management system in the world. .

“Indian courts’ introduction to advances in information technology began in 2007 with the e-Courts project – a nationwide project to improve judicial efficiency and create citizen-centric justice services. The experience at the reception of approaching courts has completely changed. We now have the ability to file cases at the click of a button through our e-filing platform. To date, over 150,000 e-filings have been made in the Supreme Court alone, with a consistent increase in the share of e-filing compared to physical files. For context, the Indian Supreme Court exercises broad jurisdiction and functions as both a constitutional court and a court of appeal, hearing appeals from the twenty-five high courts and several. tribunals across the country.

The CJI explained that FOSS helps the judiciary significantly reduce costs and provides greater transparency, unlike proprietary or closed source software. “It bridges an important communication gap and allows litigants to check case status on a daily basis. It sends automated emails to litigants with case details, hearing dates, judgments and orders. We also have offline e-kiosks that assisting litigants in navigating the systems and status information on the delivery case.”

Virtual hearings have democratized access to the Supreme Court

Saying that even after the pandemic, hybrid hearings will continue to be a feature of our courts and said virtual hearings have democratized access to the Supreme Court.

“It has opened up space for people who could not appear before the Court without great difficulty. Persons with physical limitations, pregnant women and people of advanced age can now choose to access the courtroom virtually. More than 750,000 cases have been handled. He further said that the proceedings of important constitutional cases in the Supreme Court will be streamed live on the YouTube channel, bringing constitutional deliberations to the homes and hearts of all citizens of India through digitized and optical character recognition (OCR) enabled paper books.

“We also seek to reduce the need for the physical presence of litigants in court for the adjudication of their disputes. On a trial basis, we are using artificial intelligence for traffic fine cases – these are large, repetitive and relatively straight forward cases. These are high-volume, repetitive, and relatively straightforward cases. is similar to the Mexican ‘Experitus’ – an artificial intelligence tool that analyzes past claims to decide who is entitled to social security.”

The CJI further said that the Supreme Court is monitoring judicial data of the entire country in real time by using the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and iJuris – information sharing platforms for the district level judiciary. They track real-time data on ongoing and completed cases and monitor vacancies and infrastructure. The NJDG, a repository of nationwide judicial data covering around 3,000 District Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court, is now just a click away.

“Once the decision has been delivered, it should be quickly uploaded to the court’s website so that the parties can enforce it or explore further legal remedies. In some cases time is more important than in others. An order granting bail to an undertrial should reach them. in time for the ‘right to liberty’ to become a reality The Court of Brazil has been a pioneer in the adoption of technology in the administration of justice.”

Correct and accessible information is an antidote to disinformation

The CJI said the complexity of the procedures and inaccessibility not only affects the litigants but also those who do not directly appear before the court and generally hinders timely resolution. Courts fulfill a ‘shadow function’: they create guidelines for society. Communication between courts and all others becomes critical not only to outcomes in individual cases, but also to the discursive health of the institution, through critical engagement with its decisions.

“We believe that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and that too correct and accessible information is an antidote to disinformation. The Brazilian Supreme Court’s program to combat disinformation targets disinformation by enabling access to judgments and creating an ecosystem of stakeholders. In India, it is quite common for judges to turn to the bar and play devil’s advocate to get the best answer. However, this is sometimes misunderstood as the court’s opinion and misleading excerpts of the proceedings circulate on the Internet. Fortunately, we have a robust network of legal journalists reporting live from the proceedings and helping to dispel misinformation. We use SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software) – a machine learning, AI-enabled translation tool for our judgments in 16 regional languages.”

He said more than 36,000 cases have been translated so far. There is also live streaming and YouTube recordings of important constitutional cases that provide full context. Easy access to Supreme Court judgments is made possible through Digital SCR (Supreme Court Records), where more than 30,000 old judgments are available for free.

“Our courts have not been reimagined as imposing ’empires’, but as democratic spaces for discussion. COVID-19 pushed the boundaries of our legal systems, which had to change overnight. Courts became more than just opaque physical spaces. Digital divide, representation asymmetry between parties to the same dispute and locations with low connectivity are some of the other bottlenecks we need to address. When we talk about judicial efficiency, we must look beyond the efficiency of the judge and think about a holistic judicial process.”

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