SC alarmed as 'some lawyers using AI for drafting petitions'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday raised concerns over the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drafting court petitions after it came across cases where lawyers had cited judgements and quotations that were either inaccurate or non-existent.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and BV Nagarathna observed that the court was increasingly noticing pleadings that appeared to have been generated using AI tools without proper verification.

"We have been alarmingly told that some lawyers have started using AI for drafting," CJI Kant orally remarked. Justice Nagarathna recalled an instance where a fictitious judgement had been cited before the court. "There was a case of Mercy vs Mankind which does not exist," she remarked.


CJI Kant said that similar issues had come up in a case before justice Dipankar Datta, where the law relied upon was found to be fabricated.

Justice Nagarathna pointed out that "then some are citing real Supreme Court cases but those quoted portions do not even exist in the judgement".