Supreme Court begins live transcription of its proceedings; uses AI-driven technology

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 21

The Supreme Court on Tuesday started using Artificial Intelligence and technology driven by Natural Language Processing for live transcription of its proceedings.

“Do you see the screen? We’re just trying to explore the possibilities of live transcripts. It’s an experiment. Then we will have a permanent record of arguments. Of course, it will help the judges and the lawyers, but law colleges can also analyse how arguments are made,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud announced at the beginning of proceedings.

A screen displaying the live transcription of court proceedings was placed in Court Room 1 wherein a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI Chandrachud heard issues arising out of the 2022 political crisis in Maharashtra.

The link of the transcript will be given to the lawyers for checking and thereafter it will be uploaded on the top court’s site, the CJI said.

“Now the only issue is that if two or more people talk over… it can be an issue. But there are people overseeing it. They will hear and clear it up,” he said.

The historic move was welcomed by judges and advocates alike. Justice PS Narasimha – who was sharing the Bench with the CJI — said now the Supreme Court will be literally a “Court of Record” with every spoken word getting recorded.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal – who was present in the court no. 1 — termed it a “wonderful idea” and a “milestone”.

The transcription exercise was being done by TERES, a company which has been providing such a facility to arbitration practitioners.

Senior counsel Indira Jaising – who was instrumental in live-streaming hearings of important cases of the top court — had earlier suggested audio transcripts of hearings should be made and kept for archival purposes.