Context

The Supreme Court unveiled its Artificial Intelligence (AI) portal SUPACE which is designed to make research easier for judges and for easing their workload.

About

What is SUPACE?

• Smart tool: Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court's Efficiency (SUPACE), is an AI tool that helps in collecting the relevant facts and laws to make them available to judges.
• Information provider: The portal is not to make judgments rather search and process the information available to the judges for making them good decisions.
• Efficient: It is aimed to assist judges in legal research by making it more efficient, methodical, and systematic.
• Reduction in delays: It will help in reducing the delays and pendency of cases.
• First of its Kind: The initiative is the first of its kind in the world to enhance the efficacy of judges and the judiciary.
• Threat: The automated decision-making by some of the AI systems abroad is one of the threats in influencing judicial orders.
• The loss of certain posts after its introduction is also being considered a concern.
• Digitally sound: This is one more effort to make the court procedure digital in the line with the e-court project.
• Committee: The project is launched based on the recommendation of the AI Committee formed in 2019 which was headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao.

Other IT projects in Judiciary National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of ICT The E-Committee headed by RC Lahoti was formed in 2004 and formulated the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of ICT in the Indian Judiciary in August 2005. e- Court Project The e-Courts project was conceptualized based on the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary in 2005. It is a Pan-India mission that aims to digitalize the courts. The project is implemented through the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law, and Justice. Towards taking initiation in this direction the e-Courts National portal was also launched in 2013. The portal provides Case Status, daily Cause-list, Cases Filed and Cases Registered through the Case information System (CIS) Software. The main objectives of the e-Court Project are as follows: To provide efficient & time-bound citizen-centric service delivery. To develop, install & implement decision support systems in courts. To automate the processes to provide transparency of Information access to its stakeholders. To enhance judicial productivity both qualitatively & quantitatively, to make the justice delivery system affordable, accessible, cost-effective & transparent.