No AI in Judgments: Gujarat High Court Issues Strict Usage Policy

The Gujarat High Court has introduced a new policy that restricts how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used by judges and court staff in the State. The main idea is that AI cannot be used to make judicial decisions or help decide cases. Judges and court officials must make all decisions themselves.

The policy stated that “artificial intelligence shall never be employed for any form of decision-making, judicial reasoning, order drafting, judgement preparation, bail/sentencing considerations, or any substantive adjudicatory process”.

AI is also not allowed to help in handling evidence. It cannot be used to sort, classify, summarise, or assess evidence, or to judge whether evidence is relevant or credible.

But it can be used in limited and supportive ways. It may be used for legal research, like finding judgements, identifying precedents, extracting legal principles, or helping with statutory interpretation. But any information given by AI must be checked and verified using official legal sources like recognised law reports and government publications.

AI can also be used for administrative and technical work. For example, it may help with IT-related tasks, drafting internal circulars, preparing training materials, or improving the language and structure of draft documents. It can help make writing clearer, but the legal reasoning and final content must entirely belong to the judge.

The policy makes it clear that if a judge or court officer signs a document that contains AI-generated content, they are fully responsible for it. They cannot blame AI for any mistakes. Relying on AI offers no protection against errors, misconduct, or negligence.

Legal assistants and research staff using AI must inform the concerned judge and clearly document their usage. There must be transparency whenever AI assists in preparing research notes or briefs.

The policy says that you must not enter any private or sensitive information into public AI tools, including names of parties, witnesses, or lawyers, as well as financial details, health information, caste details, or any case-related documents.

The policy says that if someone breaks the rules, they can be punished under the policy, and they may also face legal action under Indian laws like the Information Technology Act, 2000 or the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023.

Click here to read the Policy on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Judicial and Court Administration.