AI tools not for decision making: Kerala HC guidelines to district judiciary on AI usage

Kerala High Court introduced India’s first policy on AI use in district judiciary, banning AI tools for decision-making or legal reasoning. The policy emphasizes responsible, assistive use only, prioritizing human oversight, privacy, fairness, and accountability, with penalties for violations

Kochi: In a landmark move, the Kerala High Court has come out with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage policy which specifically prohibits usage of such tools for decision making or legal reasoning by the district judiciary.

The High Court has come out with the ‘Policy Regarding Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools in District Judiciary’ for a responsible and restricted use of AI in judicial functions of the district judiciary of the state in view of the increasing availability of and access to such software tools.

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According to court sources, it is a first-of-its-kind policy.

It has advised the district judiciary to “exercise extreme caution” as “indiscriminate use of AI tools might result in negative consequences, including violation of privacy rights, data security risks and erosion of trust in the judicial decision making”.

“The objectives are to ensure that AI tools are used only in a responsible manner, solely as an assistive tool, and strictly for specifically allowed purposes. The policy aims to ensure that under no circumstances AI tools are used as a substitute for decision making or legal reasoning,” the policy document said.

The policy also aims to help members of the judiciary and staff to comply with their ethical and legal obligations, particularly in terms of ensuring human supervision, transparency, fairness, confidentiality and accountability at all stages of judicial decision making.

“Any violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action, and rules pertaining to disciplinary proceedings shall prevail,” the policy document issued on July 19 said.

The new guidelines are applicable to members of the district judiciary in the state, the staff assisting them and also any interns or law clerks working with them in Kerala.

“The policy covers all kinds of AI tools, including, but not limited to, generative AI tools, and databases that use AI to provide access to diverse resources, including case laws and statutes,” the document said.

Generative AI examples include ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Deepseek, it said.

It also said that the new guidelines apply to all circumstances wherein AI tools are used to perform or assist in the performance of judicial work, irrespective of location and time of use and whether they are used on personal, court-owned or third party devices.

The policy directs that usage of AI tools for official purposes adhere to the principles of transparency, fairness, accountability and protection of confidentiality, avoid use of cloud-based services — except for the approved AI tools, meticulous verification of the results, including translations, generated by such software and all time human supervision of their usage.

“AI tools shall not be used to arrive at any findings, reliefs, order or judgement under any circumstances, as the responsibility for the content and integrity of the judicial order, judgement or any part thereof lies fully with the judges,” it said.

It further directs that courts shall maintain a detailed audit of all instances wherein AI tools are used.

“The records in this regard shall include the tools used and the human verification process adopted,” it said.

Participating in training programmes on the ethical, legal, technical and practical aspects of AI and reporting any errors or issues noticed in the output generated by any of the approved AI tools, are the other guidelines mentioned in the policy document.

The High Court has requested all District Judges and Chief Judicial Magistrates to communicate the policy document to all judicial officers and the staff members under their jurisdiction and take necessary steps to ensure its strict compliance.