India Supreme Court drafts AI limits for courts
The Supreme Court of India's AI Committee published draft regulations governing artificial intelligence use in courts on June 3, 2026, establishing guardrails that confine AI systems to assistive functions and ban opaque, unexplainable technology from judicial proceedings The Leaflet.
Draft scope and core restrictions
The preliminary "Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Courts, 2026" applies to subordinate courts, district tribunals, and statutory adjudicatory bodies across India. The draft explicitly prohibits AI from deciding cases, determining bail eligibility, assessing witness credibility, or influencing judicial deliberations Asia IP Law. Systems deployed in court processes must "function solely in an assistive capacity" and remain "strictly subservient to human judgment and judicial authority," according to the framework NDTV.
The regulations center on five founding principles: human primacy, transparency, accountability, data protection, and judicial independence. The draft requires that AI deployment not undermine due process, the right to a fair trial, equality before the law, or access to justice The Week.
Disclosure and verification requirements
The draft mandates that lawyers disclose AI use when filing pleadings, documents, or evidence in court The Leaflet. Every AI-generated output or information must be verified before use in judicial proceedings, with limited exceptions for written records. Systems that function as opaque or unexplainable black boxes are prohibited from any court application.
Public consultation and timeline
The Supreme Court of India invited public comments on the draft through June 20, 2026, later extending the consultation window to July 15, 2026 The Week. The framework represents an early major-economy effort to regulate judicial AI deployment before widespread adoption, positioning human judges as final decision-makers rather than allowing algorithmic adjudication. The regulations remain in draft form pending public feedback; no final adoption date has been set.
The move reflects global tension between deploying AI to reduce judicial backlogs and safeguarding procedural integrity—India's courts process millions of pending cases annually. By restricting AI to research, document review, and administrative support, the Supreme Court has chosen a human-centered approach over autonomous systems that could accelerate case resolution at the cost of judicial accountability.