Justice BR Gavai flags concerns over edited court clips on social media, calls for guidelines-OxBig News Network

Highlighting the circulation of edited video clips of court proceedings on social media to sensationalise legal proceedings, Justice BR Gavai, in line to be the CJI in May, has said the judiciary might have to formulate guidelines to deal with such emerging challenges.

“The unauthorised use and potential monetisation of such content blur the lines between public access and ethical broadcasting,” Justice Gavai said at an event in Kenya.

Speaking on ‘Leveraging on Technology within the Judiciary’, Justice Gavai said, “Short clips from court hearings are often circulated on social media, sometimes in a way that sensationalises the proceedings. These clips, when taken out of context, can lead to misinformation, misinterpretation of judicial discussions, and inaccurate reporting.”

He said the integration of AI in the judiciary must be approached with caution, ensuring that technology served as an aid rather than a replacement for human judgment.

Noting that clips of the court proceedings were edited without context and shared on social media platforms, Justice Gavai pointed out that several content creators, including YouTubers, re-uploaded short excerpts from the hearing as their own content, raising concerns over intellectual property rights and ownership of judicial recordings.

Justice Gavai hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to start live-streaming of constitutional cases as a big leap towards enhancing accessibility and ensuring broader access to justice, courtesy transcription of proceedings and translation of judgments from English into other regional languages.

He emphasised the need to strike a balance between transparency, public awareness, and the responsible use of court content in order to address the ethical concerns.

Admitting that technology has significantly improved access to judicial proceedings, Justice Gavai said it has also given rise to several ethical concerns as courts across the world have increasingly integrated technology to improve efficiency, enhance decision-making, and promote access to justice.

“The increasing reliance on technology in the judiciary has emerged as a response to longstanding institutional challenges, such as case backlogs and procedural inefficiencies, while also serving as a means to strengthen and modernise existing systems for improved functionality. Solutions based on artificial intelligence are transforming various aspects of the judiciary,” he said.

Underlining the significant risks surrounding the use of AI in legal research, he referred to instances where a platform like ChatGPT generated “fake case citations and fabricated legal facts”.

“While AI can process vast amounts of legal data and provide quick summaries, it lacks the ability to verify sources with human-level discernment. This has led to situations where lawyers and researchers, trusting AI-generated information, have unknowingly cited non-existent cases or misleading legal precedents, resulting in professional embarrassment and potential legal consequences,” he said, adding AI was also being used to predict court outcomes.

“This raises fundamental questions about the very nature of justice. Can a machine, lacking human emotions and moral reasoning, truly grasp the complexities and nuances of legal disputes?” he asked.