Bengaluru I-T tribunal reassigns case after finding order ‘AI-driven’

The income tax appellate tribunal (ITAT) at Bengaluru recently reassigned a case to another bench after it emerged that the order passed by the previous one was “AI-driven.”

The reassignment by the ITAT president follows an interim order by Justice M Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court in August in response to a writ petition by the BuckEye Trust, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit. The Justice had restrained a judicial member of the tribunal from hearing the nonprofit’s case after its order appeared to be AI generated. He had, however, allowed the ITAT to consider the petitioner’s request for transfer to another bench.

Last month, Justice Nagaprasanna disposed of the case after recording what he called “a very strange” instance.


The use of AI to draft the order became evident after the ITAT bench recalled its order. Soon, other members who were part of the contentious order recused themselves from hearing the case. The judicial member who was said to be the author of the AI-driven order, however, wanted to hear the matter.

At this stage, the trust moved the high court requesting that the ITAT transfer the case to another bench as it did not want the same judicial member to hear the case, fearing bias.

Justice Nagaprasanna had, in July, remarked that too much dependence on AI “will destroy the legal profession.”