SC alarmed as ‘some lawyers using AI for drafting petitions’

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drafting court petitions after it came across cases in which lawyers cited erroneous or non-existent orders and citations.

The three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and BV Nagarathna, observed that the court is increasingly taking notice of pleas that appear to have been created using AI tools without proper verification.

“We have been told worryingly that some lawyers have started using artificial intelligence for drafting,” CJI Kant said orally. Justice Nagarathna recalled an instance where a fictitious judgment was passed before the court. “There was a case of Mercy vs. Humanity that didn’t exist,” he said.
CJI Kant said similar issues were also raised in a case before justice Dipankar Datta, where the law relied upon was found to be fabricated.

Justice Nagarathna noted that “some of them refer to actual Supreme Court cases, but the quoted portions are not even found in the judgment”.