Minister proposes exploring solutions such as National Housing Exchange (See 'Corp Brief') In 2 yrs, India AI Mission has set up Foundation for Development of AI Ecosystem (See 'Corp Brief') Govt approves wheat exports and allows additional wheat and sugar exports (See 'Corp Brief') Centre for Trade organises International Moot Court under WTO Chairs Program (See 'Corp Brief') CCI okay acquistion of 6.63% equity of Valuedrive Technologies by Fidelity Funds (See 'Corp Brief') CCI allows Innomotics India to acquire low voltage motor business of Siemens (See 'Corp Brief') CCI approves combination involving Amundi Asset and ICG Plc (See 'Corp Brief') QA-industry conclave to discuss future of quality assurance in defence manufacturing (See 'Corp Brief') PDUNASS conducts Workshop on Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (See 'Corp Brief') SECL's DigiCOAL showcased at Central Vigilance Commission's National Workshop (See 'Corp Brief') IPR - Presence of well-known House Mark serves as powerful distinguishing feature that negates any likelihood of confusion: HC (See 'Legal Desk') 2.14 lakh gram panchayats connected under BharatNet: Scindia (See 'Corp Brief') Union Education Minister launches Bodhan AI Centre of Excellence (See 'Corp Brief') SEBI - As SEBI registered intermediary, Noticees are under statutory obligation to comply with applicable circulars, rules and regulations: SEBI (See 'Legal Desk') BSNL deploys One Lakh Indigenous 4G Sites; Network 5G-Ready: Scindia (See 'Corp Brief') ECI organises EVM/VVPAT Awareness Campaign in Poll-bound States (See 'Corp Brief') Trade Marks - non-use of a mark filed on proposed-to-be-used basis is irrelevant for assessing registrability of the mark: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Medicinal Plants sector to drive Viksit Bharat 2047: MoS (See 'Corp Brief') IBC/RTI - appellant cannot seek disclosure of internal notings & replies under RTI Act when same issue has already been disposed of earlier: IBBI (See 'Legal Desk') India designated Country of the Year at BIOFACH 2026, Germany (See 'Corp Brief') Delhi-NCR to be strengthened with expansion of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (See 'Corp Brief') A&C - Applications for extending arbitral tribunal's mandate u/s 29A(4) must be filed exclusively before principal civil court of original jurisdiction: SC (See 'Legal Desk') RBI rolls out measures to strengthen Cooperative Banks' Financial Health (See 'Corp Brief') A&C - Arbitral proceedings are set to commence on date of receipt of notice invoking arbitration clause: SC (See 'Legal Desk') IWAI facilitates ODC Movement via Inland Waterways to Boost Assam's Semiconductor Ecosystem (See 'Corp Brief') A&C - Under pre-2015 amendment regime, once party consents to court order appointing arbitrator, they cannot subsequently challenge existence or validity of arbitration clause before arbitral tribunal: SC (See 'Legal Desk') Prasada inaugurates STQC Lab Automation Portal 'SATYA' (See 'Corp Brief') Indian Delegation visits Vietnam to Open New Opportunities in Silk, Sericulture & Handloom (See 'Corp Brief') Paswan releases Plastic Industry Status Report 2025 (See 'Corp Brief') Trade Mark - prior user rights override subsequent registration, particularly where adoption of deceptively similar subsequent trade mark, is not bona fide & is aimed at riding on existing goodwill of existing trade mark: HC (See 'Legal Desk') CCI registered 54 cases of anti-competitive practices in 2025 (See 'Corp Brief') National Institute of Ayurveda reaffirms role as global centre for education & patient care (See 'Corp Brief') Electronic Interlocking rolled out at 34 Railway Stations of N-E (See 'Corp Brief') PMLA - Objectives of enacting PMLA 2002, was attachment and confiscation of proceeds of crime which is quintessence so as to combat evil of money-laundering: SAFEMA (See 'Legal Desk') Khelo India Multipurpose Hall at SAI Sambhajinagar is addition to Olympic readiness: MoS (See 'Corp Brief') PM addresses community programme in Kuala Lumpur (See 'Corp Brief') A & C - mandate of arbitrators appointed unilaterally by one party, merits being terminated, where the other party explicitly refuses to waive applicability of Section 12(5) of the Act: HC (See 'Legal Desk') India-US Trade Agreement: Major boost for Textile Industry (See 'Corp Brief') IBC - In unavailability of adequate document/information and considering effect of limitation period, assigning of 'zero' value to trade receivables, without any due justification, is not appropriate: IBBI (See 'Legal Desk') India has signed MoUs with 23 countries for cooperation on Digital Public Infrastructure (See 'Corp Brief') A&C - Once arbitral tribunal has adopted plausible & reasonable interpretation of facts and contractual terms, courts cannot re-appreciate evidence or sit in appeal over award: SC (See 'Legal Desk') Railways inspects All Bridges Twice a Year (See 'Corp Brief') A&C - Permitting a civil suit to challenge an award confirmed by the Supreme Court would undermine the arbitral framework and public confidence in arbitration: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Over 1.25 lakh Livestock Farmers joined Virtual Awareness Program: MoS (See 'Corp Brief') A & C - Referral court not required to conduct detailed or contested inquiry & must limit itself to ascertaining whether underlying contract contains an arbitration clause covering disputes between the parties: HC (See 'Legal Desk') Pariksha Pe Charcha marks First-Ever multi-location nationwide engagement (See 'Corp Brief') SEBI - If Noticee violated regulation 23(1) and 23(4) of LODR Regulations as alleged in SCN, Noticee is liable for payment of monetary penalty in terms of section 15HB of SEBI Act: SEBI (See 'Legal Desk') TRAI issues Telecommunication Services Interconnection Regulations, 2026 (See 'Corp Brief') Trade Marks - Procedural defects & inadvertent errors which are curable should not be permitted to defeat substantive rights, unless shown to be deliberate, mala fide, or prejudicial to opposite party: HC (See 'Legal Desk') The Securities Markets Code, 2025: Strengthened Enforcement, Weakened Accountability? 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The Role of Big data in Judiciary

Published: May 29, 2021

By Prashanth Shivadass and Sriharsha Palanki

THERE was a major paradigm shift in the way of life nearly a 100 years ago, with the Spanish flu and world wars. The world has not seen anything this devastating until the current 'COVID' pandemic. The pandemic has left not only questioned health and other political infrastructures of not just developing countries, but also the developed.

India has not been far behind. The last year though, there has been one positive change - the development of the judiciary to introduce virtual courts and e-hearings/filings. While many discussions have ensued about the pros and cons of this facility, it has certainly been a game changer and is here to stay.

Virtual Courts emerged as saviors for continued justice delivery. The next decade will mark a historic paradigm shift in the functioning of the judiciary with the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The deployment of big data systems and AI in the functioning of Courts, mark a transformative phase in the system.

In April 2021, the Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court's Efficiency (SUPACE) was launched by the AI Committee. Additionally, a neural translation tool that predicts the sequence of sentences in real-time by using an artificial neural network (which usually exists in smartphones), has been setup by the Supreme Court. This neural translation tool is named Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software or "SUVAS".

What is Big Data?

Big data essentially mean massive sets of data collected from various fields in digital format resulting in a "data flood". This data flood is analyzed by computational and mathematical models to detect possible trends and patterns. The primary benefits of such rapidly advancing techniques are natural-language processing, pattern recognition and machine learning. With the humongous number of cases being filed across the country, it has become a tedious task for the judiciary to track the information, orders, precedents, and so on.

This unstructured voluminous data can be processed with tools like SUPACE and SUVAS. The tools determine the type of insights Courts could gain to deliver timely justice. Big data further analyzes the nature of the case and provides pre-processed data to the judiciary which would aid them better at discharging their responsibilities. The SUVAS and SUPACE software is the first generation of the AI system. 1

SUPACE - Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court's Efficiency

The SUPACE 2 software identifies and extracts the objective facts from the file i.e., the date, time, place of occurrence of event and such other details to identify the relevant case. The software also prompts questions and answers where the user is provided with the feature to perform all such tasks which are usually undertaken in parts that are not properly integrated towards the end.

SUVAS - Supreme court Vidhik Anuvaad Software

The SUVAS software translates judgments and legal documents from English into nine regional dialects. This saves valuable time and helps the common man understand the judgments in various local languages. The then Chief Justice of India, Justice Bobde, who introduced the AI technology to the Supreme Court explained the benefits, summarized as under: 3

1. The AI can retrieve information instantly for the judges as opposed to turning the pages of a book;

2. It could simultaneously display the arguments made in any of the courts and the findings of such courts;

3. The software can prompt relevant data so that information available is adequate enough for deriving an appropriate inference;

4. AI functions with breathtaking speed cutting down on the scope of errors. It would reduce the burden on the administrative workforce in the court offices.

On the contrary, the Advocates could benefit in the following manner:

1. Performing automated keyword-based search for legal precedents useful for ongoing research;

2. Indexing, storage and retrieval of information for ongoing cases of the firm;

3. Creation of an automatic schedule for Advocates to track the hearings;

4. Record the proceedings, daily orders and judgements.

The Future of law

Lawyers deal with voluminous documentation at every given possibility - be it in litigation or Corporate and M&A. Every lawyers' knowledge and expertise, becomes essential and vital in bringing an end to a legal matter. In the eyes of an AI system, this knowledge and experience is 'unstructured data' and therefore the AI pieces together this unstructured data to provide some form of analysis and training to others, including junior lawyers.

AI may also be utilized to undertake an assessment of the matter at hand basis legal precedents. This aids the Advocate in ascertaining if the matter holds adequate merit to proceed with litigation and to make an informed decision. The application of AI to law will be similar to a 'Google Maps' application which collects and collates real-time information and calculates the average time to reach a certain location. Under unforeseen circumstances, alerts are sent to the users and a revised estimate is displayed on-screen. Data such as traffic, average speed, historical data etc., are collected to make such reasonable predictions.

Conclusion

Substantial volume of data has no value. However, it acquires the character of being useful upon critical analysis of other facts relevant to the issue at hand. With gigantic leaps that big data is making, businesses are automating their processes, eliminating the need for human intervention. Eventually, legal advice may be sought from a computer empowered with big data, therefore rendering the current system obsolete. Thus, it is imperative that the art of Advocacy remains indispensable by exploring ways to align with the evolving times that brought us AI.

[The authors are Partner and Associate respectively, with Shivadass & Shivadass (Law Chambers). The views expressed are strictly personal.]

1 https://districts.ecourts.gov.in/sites/default/files/Invitation%20of%20Launching%20of%20AI%20Portal%20SUPACE_2.pdf

2 Invitation by Supreme Court regarding the launch of SUPACE and SUVAS portals, April 6, 2021, https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1379394969845211140/photo/1

3Rushda Khan, Big Data Revolution in the Supreme Court, Live Law, May 9, 2021, https://www.livelaw.in/columns/supreme-court-big-data-revolution-supace-covid-19-173867

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