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| HC declines PIL for AI 'Know Your Advocate' cards, calls move premature | | Bench says court digitisation, justice-delivery applications already work in progress; petitioner free to raise issues later | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 8: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has declined to entertain a Public Interest Litigation seeking sweeping AI-driven reforms in the justice delivery system, including "Know Your Advocate" profile cards, AI-powered case audits, digital monitoring of adjournments and multilingual legal assistants, observing that the petition is premature at this stage.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Mohd Yousuf Wani passed the order in WP(C) PIL No. 5/2026 filed by Yang Burzhome alias Mohammad Ashfaq Hussain Handoo, who appeared in person.
The petitioner sought directions to the Registrar General of the High Court and the Bar Council of India for creation of an integrated AI-powered "Know Your Advocate Card (KYA)", containing profiles of advocates along with proposed performance and efficiency indicators such as disposal rates, adjournment history, case-success context, disciplinary records and fee structures.
He also proposed an AI-enabled "Nyaya Mitra Solution Explorer" and "Case Health Card" for assessing legal merit, precedent alignment, document readiness, limitation and jurisdiction issues and likely procedural timelines.
The PIL further sought mandatory Continuing Legal Education for advocates, AI-driven legal research access for litigants and rural lawyers, transparent fee-disclosure guidelines, automated monitoring of unnecessary adjournments, independent disciplinary tribunals and AI-powered multilingual legal assistants.
The petitioner also sought expansion of e-Sewa Kendras and the public defender model, besides proposing greater budgetary allocation for the judiciary.
After examining the prayers, the Bench observed that the petitioner was essentially seeking creation of various applications and mechanisms aimed at reforming the justice delivery system, particularly the functioning of advocates.
The High Court acknowledged that some of the issues raised may be useful for improving and reforming the justice delivery system in the long run, but held that entertaining the PIL at the present stage would be premature.
The Bench noted that digitisation of court records and development of applications for improving justice delivery were already works in progress, with the Supreme Court's E-Committee and NALSA seized of the matter. Issuing directions at this stage, the court said, may not be conducive.
Accordingly, the court disposed of the PIL while advising the petitioner to allow the measures already initiated by the concerned authorities to materialise. It granted him liberty to raise the issues again after awaiting the outcome of those steps.
(JNF) |
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