VISAKHAPATNAM: Artificial intelligence and digital technologies must make justice more accessible rather than deepen existing inequalities in the legal system, former President of India Ram Nath Kovind said on Saturday, stressing the need to ensure that lawyers practising in district courts have access to the same digital resources as corporate legal professionals.
Delivering the Justice K Ramaswamy Endowment Lecture at Dr BR Ambedkar College of Law, Andhra University, on ‘The Legal Profession: Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Age’, he emphasised that technology must address barriers of distance, language and access that prevent ordinary citizens from benefiting from legal services.
Referring to initiatives such as Tele-Law and e-Sewa Kendras, he observed that digital platforms were connecting rural citizens with legal professionals, but language and complicated user interfaces continued to limit their reach. Recalling his suggestion to former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to make Supreme Court judgments available in regional languages, Kovind noted that more than 83,000 translations were now accessible in 18 Indian languages.
He cautioned against excessive reliance on artificial intelligence in legal research and court proceedings, pointing out that AI tools could generate fabricated judgments and citations. Referring to cases in the US and India involving AI-generated false citations, he stressed that lawyers must personally verify every legal reference against original judgments and establish its authenticity.