In a first, the Narendra Modi-led government will infuse artificial intelligence in the judiciary to expedite routine verdicts in “petty crime” cases and land litigation. This move to introduce “robo judges”
could potentially change the very face of the justice delivery system.
The Centre has initiated a programme to train district and sessions court judges in using AI for routine verdicts and they will be flown abroad to study how such systems work in countries where the experiment has been tested with success.
‘Robo judges’, however, are not robots sitting on courtroom benches. The concept is about using AI to process case information, background details, and past orders to help judges deliver verdicts faster.
This will especially be applied for petty crime, traffic, and land litigation cases that often tend to clog district and sessions courts. The goal is ethical and efficient use of AI to speed up justice without replacing human judges.
The idea, which has long been whispered and deliberated in legal and bureaucratic circles, is no longer a theoretical debate. It is here, and is being implemented in phases. And it starts with a training.
THE ESTONIA-CHINA BLUEPRINT, NOW IN INDIA
The phrase ‘robo judge’ first entered global legal-judicial jargon in Estonia, where experiments began with AI-enabled verdicts in low-level disputes.
Launched in 2019, the initiative was part of Estonia’s broader e-governance model, where the its justice ministry envisioned AI resolving disputes under 7000 euros. The system would evaluate evidence and deliver rulings, with human judges available for further appeals if required. This marked a bold, unprecedented step in integrating AI into judicial functions at least six years ago, intended to cut delays and streamline low-stakes legal processes.
Months later, China — with its vast digital courts network — took the AI-assisted verdict delivery model forward, deploying machine learning tools in millions of cases.
India has closely watched the developments, and discussions started nearly three years ago. Now, in 2025, the plan has moved into implementation mode.
Since April, two separate batches, each comprising around 70 to 80 ICT (Information and Communication Technology) officers and district judges, have undergone intensive training in Singapore. More rounds are on the anvil.
The idea is not to replace human judges, but to equip them with tools that can process case history, precedent, and data in speed. The outcome is likely to include faster disposal of the kind of cases that choke India’s lower judiciary.
IIPA AS THE NERVE CENTRE
The Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), which designs capacity-building programmes for civil services, government offices, defence personnel, and judiciary, is the nodal organisation piloting the training.
Its mandate is to expose the judges to global best practices, train them on ethical frameworks for AI use, and eventually build an indigenous system that works within India’s legal context. Officials linked to the programme said the focus is on “augmenting, not automating”. Judges remain the final authority but in routine matters like challan disputes, minor land litigation, or petty theft and so on, AI assistance could shave months off the wait for justice, they said.
Dr Surabhi Pandey, an associate professor at IIPA has a paper published on the subject titled — ‘AI application and legal work’. “Artificial Intelligence(AI) has emerged as a transformative force across multiple sectors and the judicial and legal professions are no exception. The integration of Al into legal practice and judicial decision-making has brought about significant efficiencies, improved access to justice, and enhanced legal research capabilities. However, Al also presents challenges related to ethical considerations, potential biases, and questions about its reliability in legal decision-making,” Pandey said.
She has explained in which areas AI can be used. “Legal research has traditionally been a time-consuming process requiring extensive manual effort to sift through legal texts, case laws, statutes, and scholarly articles. The AI tool can enable automated case law analysis, predictive analytics, natural language processing, summarization, and categorization,” the professor said.
She added statistical evidence. “Numerous statistics highlight how AI has the ability to revolutionise the Indian legal system. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) reports that within the last two years, courts that have adopted digital case management systems using AI technologies have observed a 15-20% decrease in the number of pending cases. Furthermore, according to a Ministry of Law and Justice study from 2022, case processing times have improved by 30 percent as a result of pilot initiatives in large cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai.
“Additionally, the use of AI in legal research has demonstrated a quantifiable increase in efficiency. AI-enabled legal research tools cut the time needed for case preparation by 35%, according to a study from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay (2021), freeing up more time for attorneys to focus on client engagement and case strategy. Even though these figures are positive, it’s vital to take into account their limits. Since many of these numbers are based on trial initiatives, they could not yet accurately represent implementation across the country. However, preliminary evidence indicates that AI could greatly improve the efficiency of the Indian legal system overall, decrease backlogs, and expedite the judicial process.”
WHY IS THIS CRUCIAL?
India’s lower judiciary is groaning under the weight of more than 3.6 crore pending cases. Even incremental acceleration in disposal rates could be revolutionary.
For now, the government seems determined to push ahead with the project. As one senior official involved in the programme put it, “We cannot afford to ignore how the world is moving. The question is not whether AI will enter the courts. It is how prepared we will be when it does. This is about integrating AI into the judicial system for faster disposal of a section of cases and reduce pendency.”
The robo judge, it seems, is no longer a futuristic headline. It is about to take its first oath in an Indian courtroom through the form of machine learning.
