190816 india supreme court
Supreme Court of India. Image Credit: Gulf News archives

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday began on an experimental basis live transcription of court proceedings using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing technology.

The live transcription was done in the courtroom of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, who was heading a Constitution Bench today. The transcription will be given to lawyers for vetting prior to uploading on the Supreme Court website.

A screen displaying the live transcription of court proceedings has been installed in the courtroom. It is also learnt that transcripts of oral arguments will be available on its website.

CJI DY Chandrachud remarked that this facility would be a huge resource for lawyers as well as for law colleges.

CJI Chandrachud while referring to the members of the bar said: “You can see a screen here. This is a live transcript facility and this is an experiment.”

Justice PS Narasimha remarked that it will be truly a court of record (The Supreme Court and High Courts are called the court of record)

The Constitution Bench was hearing the matter related to the political crisis.

The top court streamed on YouTube its proceedings for the public to watch in 2022. The proceedings were watched by more than 800,000 viewers.

The decision to live stream the proceedings of the Constitution benches was taken by the full court on September 20, 2022, and soon thereafter trial runs were undertaken by the Registry.

In 2018 the then CJI Dipak Misra-led three-judge bench had agreed to start a live telecast of proceedings in a phased manner.