Supreme Court launches AI for live transcript of court hearings

In a first, the Supreme Court on Tuesday launched the use of Artificial Intelligence and technology powered by Natural Language Processing on a trial basis to provide live transcriptions of court hearings.

The service was launched in the courtroom of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who is heading a Constitution bench hearing a bunch of pleas on Maharashtra political party Shiv Sena. A screen displaying the live transcription of court proceedings has been placed in the CJI's courtroom facing lawyers.

The CJI said that SC was trying to explore the possibilities of live transcripts. "It is an experiment. Then we will have a permanent record of arguments," he said, adding the facility will help not only judges and lawyers but also law colleges.


The service is being managed by TERES, a company which has been providing the facility to arbitration practitioners. As per the available information, SC will also make available on its website transcripts of oral arguments.

"Now, the only issue can be if two or more people talk over. But there are people overseeing it. They will hear and clear it up," the CJI said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, termed the move "wonderful idea". Justice PS Narasimha said this would mean that SC would be literally a "court of record".

In her plea calling for livestreaming of significant cases, senior advocate Indira Jaising had earlier suggested audio transcripts of hearings for archival. Last month, a bench headed by the CJI had taken these suggestions on record.