AI in Indian Law
Artificial intelligence is being adopted across India's legal sector, from law-firm research and contract review to the Supreme Court's translation and transcription systems and the online dispute resolution platforms used by consumers and businesses. The transformation is driven by a massive case backlog and by the demand for affordable legal services among India's millions of small businesses.[^c7][^c6] The National Judicial Data Grid has long recorded over 2.6 crore cases pending across local, district and high courts and the Supreme Court, with close to 9% of these cases pending for 10 years or more; by 31 December 2025 the government reported 4,76,57,328 cases pending in district and subordinate courts alone, and by 16 July 2026 the National Judicial Data Grid recorded 5.64 crore pending cases across all courts.[^c1][^c7][^c16]
In private practice, Indian law firms increasingly use AI for legal research, document drafting, and case management, while startups such as SpotDraft, CaseMine, and NearLaw have built platforms tailored to Indian case law and contracts.[^c2] India could add $1 trillion to its GDP by 2035 through AI, and the legal-tech market was estimated at $1.3 billion.[^c11] Online dispute resolution has scaled quickly: a single online Lok Adalat held in Maharashtra in 2021 settled nearly 3 lakh of over 11 lakh cases in one day.[^c17] In the judiciary, the Supreme Court launched SUPACE, an AI-driven research tool that assists judges by summarising case files and highlighting precedents, and the e-Courts project has digitised court records and case tracking at scale.[^c4][^c1]
The legal and regulatory framework for AI in India is still developing. No comprehensive AI law has been enacted: the Digital India Act remains stalled in draft, and the government has said a dedicated AI law is needed.[^c10] The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 provide the statutory base, while MeitY has been drafting an AI-specific law.[^c5] India's November 2025 governance guidelines promote a "light-touch", risk-based approach to AI combining voluntary measures, digital public infrastructure, and a techno-legal strategy, and the Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024 to build compute capacity and indigenous foundational models.[^c13][^c14] India hosted the AI Impact Summit in February 2026 as part of its leadership in global AI discussions.[^c18] The Data Protection Board of India has been constituted and is operational, making data protection enforcement an AI-adjacent risk area.[^c15] The judiciary has begun to define AI's legal treatment: in July 2026 the Delhi High Court held that training large language models on copyrighted news content constituted fair dealing under the Copyright Act, and the Supreme Court cracked down on AI-hallucinated judicial citations.[^c8] Courts have also acted directly against AI-generated harm — in July 2026 the Delhi High Court ordered removal of deepfakes and directed the Bar Council of India to set disciplinary norms for AI-fabricated citations.[^c12] The Bar Council responded with a digital ethics circular that bans AI deepfakes, fabricated judgments, and undisclosed AI-generated legal content, and creates new enforcement bodies.[^c9] Throughout, the judiciary has maintained that AI should assist rather than replace human decision-making, framing the technology as a means to make access to justice more streamlined, cost-effective, and time-bound.[^c3]