Work on to make available judgments in all Indian languages: CJI Chandrachud

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Saturday said that in an increasingly digitised world, the Indian judiciary was working to make judgments from various courts available in all Indian languages.

Speaking during an event organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa to felicitate him, the CJI said that he had met with a professor of Madras who worked in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Justice Chandrachud had served in the Bombay High Court earlier before getting elevated to the Supreme Court.

The CJI said that he was mulling to take the help of AI to make verdicts from different courts available in all regional languages of the country.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court e-Committee mentioned the ambitious new project launched on the first day of 2023, the electronic Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR), which provide a digital version of the judgments delivered by the Apex Court in the manner as they were reported in the official law report – ‘Supreme Court Reports’.

He said one of the main objectives of the e-SCR project was to make judgments available to all for free.

As per the CJI, with the help of technology, he aimed at removing the barrier of access to information, as it was not possible for every lawyer in the country to afford private reporters. 

He said that merely making judgments available for free may not be sufficient to achieve the goal of removing barriers to access information unless the judgments were also made available in all regional languages.

The CJI said that the niceties of English would not help the rural lawyers, so it was necessary to make information accessible for everyone.

He further pointed out that access to the legal profession was more easily available to those who attended English schools and then cracked the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) to finally join a National Law University.

The CJI said that providing free access to knowledge platforms was the  least that could be done to even out the playing field for all.

Besides CJI Chandrachud, Supreme Court judge Justice B.R. Gavai and Bombay High Court Acting Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala graced the occasion..

A Civil and Criminal Practice handbook was launched on the occasion that made the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa the first state bar council to publish a book of such kind. The handbook include a web bank having over 1000 drafts, including civil drafts, criminal complaints and deeds.