HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS ENHANCING EFFICIENCY IN INDIAN COURTS: A PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE

INTRODUCTION The Indian judicial system, which is among the largest judicial systems in the world, is still struggling to address its long-term predicaments in terms of backlog of cases, delays in the judicial process as well as administrative bottlenecks. As the number of outstanding cases in different courts exceeds 5 crore, the need to find innovative solutions that can streamline the delivery of justice in a manner that does not affect the independence of courts and human discretion has been identified as increasingly pressing. In this regard, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proved to be a game changer that can modernise the justice delivery system without affecting the independence of courts and human discretion. The application of AI in the Indian court is much more than mere theoretical experimentation. It already works in various areas legal research and automated translation, case management, virtual hearings, and administrative decision support. The SUVAS translation system used by the Supreme Court, e-SCR, digital case repositories, and AI-based transcription are not something futuristic but are practical technologies that help a judge and court personnel to reduce the number of manual operations, improve the accuracy of the work, facilitate hearings, and, finally, make justice more accessible to citizens . This has been an application of AI as a practical component that shows that technology when wielded in a responsible manner can assist the judicial system deal with systemic inefficiencies without compromising the fundamental values of equity, accountability, and transparency.