Artificial Intelligence Portal SUPACE

In news : Recently, the Chief Justice of India unveiled the Supreme Court of India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) portal SUPACE

About the Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court’s Efficiency (SUPACE)

CJI launched the AI based portal in the judicial system aimed at assisting judges with legal research “more efficiently, methodically and systematically” than a human mind but said it will not be allowed to “spill over” into decision making.
It is designed to make research easier for judges, thereby easing their workload.
SUPACE is a tool that collects relevant facts and laws and makes them available to a judge.
The portal is the pet project of CJI SA Bobde
The Supreme Court’s system is not designed to take decisions, but only to process facts and to make them available to judges looking for an input for a decision.
With this portal, the SC intends to leverage machine learning to deal with the vast amounts of data received at the time of filing of cases.
It is a perfect blend of human intelligence and machine learning. A hybrid one

Concerns

Apprehension that the CJI allayed were the concerns regarding unemployment or redundancy of certain posts after introduction of SUPACE which is expected to be initially used on an experimental basis by the judges of Bombay and Delhi High Courts who deal with criminal matters.
Another apprehension to be allayed is the generation of unemployment if the system is adopted

Benefits & significance of the portal

This AI powered portal will ease pendency of cases
It can address bottlenecks resulting in excessive delays
It has the potential to be a tremendous asset in the justice delivery system. In the future, AI will present a more streamlined, cost effective and time bound means of bringing to fruition the fundamental right of access to justice

Extra reading: https://journalsofindia.com/the-ecourts-mission-mode-project/