Supreme Court of India embraces AI for language translation and legal access

The Supreme Court of India has integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) language technology into its operations to translate judicial documents, improve legal research, and automate various processes, according to a statement by Arjun Ram Meghwal, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Since February 2023, AI has been actively utilised to transcribe oral arguments in Constitution Bench matters and translate key Supreme Court and High Court judgments into vernacular languages. A dedicated committee, headed by a Supreme Court judge, oversees this initiative.

"The Committee is having regular meetings with the Sub-Committees of High Courts comprising Hon’ble Judges to expedite the process of translation," stated Meghwal.

AI translation committees in High Courts are actively monitoring the translation progress. Eight High Courts have already launched e-High Court Reports (e-HCR), containing translated judgments, with others in the process of following suit.

The AI Committees have urged High Courts to request their respective state governments to translate all central and state legislation, rules, and regulations into regional languages, making them accessible on state websites.

"It has also been impressed upon all the State Governments to extend full support to the respective High Courts in the exercise of translation of judgments since it is part of ‘access to justice’ as envisaged under the Constitution of India," Meghwal emphasised.

As of August 5th, AI-powered translation has yielded impressive results:

"Using AI, '36,271 Supreme Court judgments have been translated into Hindi, and 17,142 judgments have been translated into 16 other regional languages,'" Meghwal revealed, adding that these translations are accessible on the e-SCR portal.

Remarkably, this project has achieved significant progress without dedicated funding.