Chairs discussion on Modeling, Data and AI based Innovations in Judiciary at IIT Delhi

New Delhi: Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat of the Supreme Court chaired a discussion on Modeling, Data and AI based Innovations in Judiciary and inaugurated the Universal Justice Foundation (UJF) lab facility on Artificial Intelligence for Judiciary at IIT Delhi

The prestigious event orgainsed on July 07th, 2021 was attended by Prof. Sri Krishna Deva Rao, Vice Chancellor (VC), National Law University Delhi; Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi; Dr. Anil Wali, MD FITT, IIT Delhi; Prof. Mausam, Prof. Brejesh Lall and Prof. Nomesh Bolia from IIT Delhi.

Hon’ble Justice (Retd.) K. G. Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India joined the event virtually and expressed his excitement for IIT taking up data-based research on judiciary.

The event was also joined by Hon'ble Ms. Justice (Retd.) Poonam Srivastava who introduced the UJF.

The Director, IIT Delhi welcomed the use of technology in Judiciary and announced that IIT Delhi has already set up a Centre of Excellence for Law & Technology and is also in the process of signing an MoU with the National Law University (NLU) Delhi to collaborate on the entire gamut of research and innovation activities: joint projects, innovations & start-ups, outreach & courses. IIT Delhi and NLU Delhi will be working closely on various aspects related to the Law and Technology.

Prof. Nomesh Bolia informed that IIT Delhi has expertise in several areas such as Operations Research, Management Science, Machine Learning and other data/modeling based methods that can work on problems around judicial delays and other problems at the intersection of Law & Technology. Some of this research is already going on as a part of the Daksh CoE on Law & Technology at IIT Delhi.

Prof. Brejesh Lall shared the kind of problems that the UJF lab will engage with and how it seeks to work on problems that really make a difference.

While addressing the event, Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat shared his experience on how technology has improved data management and the time-consuming paper process in e-courts.

While acknowledging the benefits of technology, Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat also highlighted corresponding limitations and ethical issues through several examples and emphasized, “We must craft the safeguards around the use of AI for public function and ensure that the element of human discretion remains wherever required and definitely at each level where important decisions are made. This will ensure that at the very least discriminatory decision making can be appealed and responsibility determined. Ultimately technology must aid judicial functioning and accessibility and not create ground for further exclusion.”   

The event concluded with high hopes from IIT Delhi for fruitful outcomes through a winning and ethical synergy of technology and judicial functioning. 

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                   Press Release Issued on- 11/07/2021