In a first, the Supreme Court on Tuesday began using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing technology to transcribe its proceedings on an experimental basis, reported The Indian Express.
Launching the live transcription in the courtroom, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud called it a “huge resource”.
“We’ll see how it works, especially in the Constitution Bench matters, because then we’ll have a permanent record of arguments. Of course, it helps judges and the lawyers, but it will also help our law colleges. They can analyse how matters are argued…It is a huge resource,” CJI Chandrachud said.
The AI transcript was seen on the live-streaming screen of courtroom number 1, which is the court of the CJI, where a five-judge Constitution bench heard a case related to the 2022 political crisis of Maharashtra today.
The Supreme Court transcription is using Teres, a platform which is often used for transcribing arbitration proceedings.
The CJI said that the transcript will be shared by lawyers who have argued the cases for verification, and will likely be uploaded on the apex court’s website every evening.
Speaking about the platform, the CJI said that if two or more voices speak at the same time, there could be some issues, but that will be rectified by professionals who will clean up the errors by evening.
This is the second major decision of the Supreme Court to bring technology into the courtroom, which is seen as a major move towards transparency. The SC had earlier decided to livestream proceedings which happen before the Constitution bench.