Supreme Court of India warns against AI-generated petitions with fabricated citations
The Supreme Court of India expressed serious concern over a growing trend of lawyers using AI tools to draft court petitions that contain non-existent judgments and fabricated quotations. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant noted instances of fake cases like "Mercy v. Mankind" and cases where genuine judgments were cited with false extracts attributed to them.
What happened
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice B V Nagarathna expressed serious concern over lawyers filing petitions drafted with AI tools that contain non-existent judgments and fabricated quotations.
Justice Nagarathna cited an instance of a completely fictitious case titled 'Mercy v. Mankind' that was cited before the court. Chief Justice Surya Kant noted that similar issues had occurred before Justice Dipankar Datta, where 'all precedents cited never existed.'
The bench identified a second pattern where lawyers cited real Supreme Court judgments but attributed fake quotations to them. Justice Nagarathna noted that while the citation itself may be correct, 'fake quotes are attributed to the judgment,' creating an additional burden for judges to verify accuracy.
Reported impact
The Bombay High Court recently imposed large costs on a litigant for citing AI-generated fake citations during a hearing.
Justice Nagarathna stated that fabricated quotations created an additional burden on the part of judges, who must verify every extract placed before them.
Index analysis
Justice Joymalya Bagchi lamented a decline in the art of legal drafting, observing that Special Leave Petitions today often consist merely of long quotations from judgments, whereas earlier generation lawyers like senior advocate Ashok Kumar Sen practiced precise, concise, and original drafting.
Governance controls
The observations were made during a hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by academician Roop Rekha Verma seeking guidelines on political speeches, suggesting the court has begun addressing the issue of AI use in legal practice.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.