India’s Supreme Court Sets AI Rules for Courts, Invites Public Comments

India's Supreme Court released draft regulations on June 3, 2026, governing how AI tools can be used across courts, with a public comment deadline of June 20.

The regulations, prepared by the Supreme Court's AI Committee, apply to every court in India, from the Supreme Court down to subordinate courts, tribunals, and statutory commissions. The framework permits AI for legal research, drafting, translation, transcription, and case management. It bars AI from deciding cases, passing sentences, or assessing bail eligibility.

This matters because India has one of the world's largest judicial backlogs, and these regulations set the first formal national framework defining what AI can and cannot do inside courtrooms.

What AI Can Be Used For

The draft lists over a dozen approved uses for AI in court processes:

• Legal research and precedent retrieval

• Citation verification

• Summarising pleadings and judgments

• Translating legal documents, orders, and pleadings

• Automated transcription of court proceedings, subject to mandatory review by a designated officer

• Drafting assistance and generation of prescribed formats

• Preparation of notices, summons, and administrative documents

• Cause list preparation and hearing scheduling

• Case filing assistance and defect scrutiny

• Record management and judicial resource allocation

• AI-powered chatbots to help litigants access court services

• Accessibility tools such as text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and Braille translation for persons with disabilities

• Document authenticity verification and fraud detection in administrative processes, subject to mandatory human review