India is using AI to resolve minor criminal cases
India is rolling out artificial intelligence in district and sessions courts to help judges handle routine cases—think minor crimes, traffic tickets, and land disputes.
The project kicked off this year (2025), with judges and tech officers getting trained abroad.
AI will sift through case data and past rulings to deliver faster verdicts, but don't worry—human judges still have the final say.
Judges get AI support in Estonia, China already
This move borrows ideas from places like Estonia and China, where AI has helped resolve low-level disputes for years.
Led by the Indian Institute of Public Administration, the program aims to support—not replace—judges.
Early results from pilot initiatives in select cities are promising: pending cases dropped 15-20% and case processing sped up by 30%, hinting at potential progress against India's court backlog.
The bigger picture
India's new project comes with the aim to bring in smarter case management, legal research tools using natural language processing, and intelligent scheduling.
The hope? To cut down delays for over 36 million pending cases while making the whole system more transparent and accessible for everyone.