In a first, Kerala High Court issues policy for use of AI by judges; says no AI for judgments

In a first in the country, the Kerala High Court has framed a set of guidelines for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools by members of the State's district judiciary and the employees assisting them.

As per this policy, judges should not use AI tools to arrive at any findings, reliefs, order or judgment under any circumstances.

Further, the policy also bars use of tools like ChatGPT and Deepseek. Only AI tools approved by the High Court or the Supreme Court can be used.

The policy has been designed to ensure responsible use of AI tools in judicial work, protecting privacy rights, addressing security risks, compliance with legal and ethical obligations, and ensuring accountability at every level.

The policy also aims to ensure that under no circumstances Al tools are used as a substitute for decision-making or legal reasoning.

It directs members and staff of the district judiciary to attend training sessions and maintain a strict record of every instance of AI use.

The High Court has issued the following guidelines:

1. It shall be the obligation of the members of the judiciary and employees assisting them to ensure that any Al tool they use for official purposes adheres to the integral principles of transparency, fairness, accountability and protection of confidentiality.

2. Use of all cloud-based services such as ChatGPT and Deepseek, except for the Al tools approved by the High Court or the Supreme Court, are to be avoided. This is to ensure that personal identifiers and privileged communications remain confidential.

3. Even with regard to the use of approved Al tools, extreme caution is advised to avoid errors. All legal citations or references, must be meticulously verified by the judicial officers. This is applicable to all approved Al tools, including databases of case-laws and statutes that use Al tools to generate, summarise or fine-tune results.

4. When Al tools are used to translate legal texts or case laws, the outputs provided must be verified by qualified translators or Judges themselves.

5. While approved Al tools may be used for routine administrative tasks such as scheduling of cases or court management, human supervision is required at all times while using such tools.

6. Al tools shall not be used to arrive at any findings, reliefs, order or judgment under any circumstances, as the responsibility for the content and integrity of the judicial order, judgment or any part thereof lies fully with the judges.

7. Approved Al tools shall be used only for the purposes for which they are supplied or provided.

8. Courts shall maintain a detailed audit of all instances wherein Al tools are used. The records in this regard shall include the tools used and the human verification process adopted.

9. The members of the judiciary and employees assisting them must participate in the training programs organised by the Judicial Academy or the High Court on the ethical, legal, technical and practical aspects of Al.

10. If any errors or other issues are noticed in the output generated by any of the approved Al tools, the same should be reported to the Principal District Court promptly and the Principal District Judge shall forward the same to the IT Department of the High Court without delay so that appropriate safety reviews can be taken by the IT team immediately.

This policy will also be applicable to any interns or law clerks working with the district judiciary in Kerala.