Justice is not judiciary dependent – Mediation and AI are the future of justice

Traditional courts, arbitrations, tribunals, commissions, and other judicial authorities constituting the justice delivery system—long regarded as the final bastion and once seen as the ultimate guardian of fairness, accountability, and civil order—have always been under intense scrutiny. But now, they face a deep and growing crisis of existence. The disillusionment resulting from delays, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies pervading these institutions is leading to a massive erosion of public trust. At the heart of this breakdown lies a painful truth: the failure of judges, arbitrators, and advocates to deliver justice in a timely, impartial, and competent manner.

The failures of judges, arbitrators, and advocates—whether through delay, bias, negligence, or incompetence—are not merely unfortunate. This systemic failure is not just regrettable—it is accelerating a historic shift towards alternatives. They have triggered an exponential rise in the demand for alternative models of dispute resolution. Mediation and AI-driven adjudication are fast emerging as the twin pillars of a new era of justice—one that is more accessible, equitable, and future-ready.

Cracks in the Legal Edifice: As the System Fails

All human relationships are based on trust. All conflicts and disputes arise from a breach of trust. Justice means providing just and reasonable compensation to the wronged party through timely resolution. However, in many jurisdictions—especially those burdened with colonial legacies, archaic procedures, and adversarial inefficiencies—the following trends are increasingly visible:

1. Judicial Idiosyncrasy and Perception Bias: Law is meant to be a handmaid to justice. However, the outcome of a case is often shaped by the personal worldview, mood, temperament, or background of the presiding judge, and the interpretation of law is structured accordingly. Justice becomes arbitrary when it rests on individual perception rather than structured reasoning and consistent jurisprudence. When outcomes hinge on subjective perceptions rather than objective reasoning, justice becomes erratic and unreliable.

2. Advocates as Dispute Resolvers or Roadblocks: Lawyers, as facilitators of justice, are meant to help judges deliver justice—but many become its saboteurs. Through negligence, incompetence, or even collusion, some advocates become impediments. They mislead clients, exploit technicalities, delay proceedings, and find loopholes for personal gain. Some of them are even proclaimed as great advocates, yet they have eroded public confidence in the legal system, causing irreparable harm and widespread disillusionment.

3. Porous, Uncoordinated, and Fragmented Judicial Processes: Judicial systems are often slow, porous, and uncoordinated. The hierarchy from trial courts to the Supreme Court allows habitual and rampant adjournments, missing records, procedural abuse, and lack of systemic accountability—crippling courts and tribunals. Fundamentally, the breaching party rarely wishes to compensate the wronged party and instead uses the best legal services to avoid it through ingenuity. 

The result is not just delay—it is denial of justice. Every litigation involves a litigant, their family, friends, and colleagues—all waiting for justice. The cumulative result is that citizens are suffering and have lost faith in the very notion of a fair and accessible justice system.

The Rise of Mediation: Justice through Generative Dialogue and Resolution

As faith in adversarial litigation and adjudication wanes, mediation is gaining prominence—not as an alternative, but as a superior first resort. Unlike court battles, mediation is collaborative, cost-effective, and focused on resolution where both parties win, rather than adjudication where one party wins and the other loses. It is:

·  Customized, person- and context-sensitive

·  Speedy, confidential, and cost-effective

·  Non-adversarial, non-technical, solution-centric

·  Empowering, allowing parties to co-create outcomes

·  Ethical, empathetic, and inclusive

Unlike judges and arbitrators who adjudicate based on records submitted by advocates and impose outcomes under threat of contempt, mediators facilitate deeper understanding of conflicts, enabling parties to arrive at meaningful solutions. Where litigation demands proof of past events, mediation allows space for shaping future relationships. It replaces the win-lose paradigm with collaborative problem-solving grounded in mutual respect.

The Emergence of AI Judges, Advocates and Legal Advisors

Artificial Intelligence is set to revolutionize justice delivery—just as it has transformed healthcare, logistics, and finance—by automating, accelerating, and democratizing access. AI is immune to fatigue, ego, or influence by seniority or sensationalism. Trained on vast datasets of judgments, statutes, parliamentary debates, and policy documents, AI systems can:

·  Deliver neutral, precedent-consistent judgments

·  Offer accurate legal predictions based solely on facts

·  Provide on-demand legal advice at scale

·  Reduce human error, bias, and inefficiency

·  Regulate filing processes and eliminate procedural errors

In high-volume, low-value disputes—where delays cause disproportionate hardship—AI could soon become the preferred adjudicator. The question is no longer whether AI can deliver justice, but whether humans can afford to deny it any longer.

The Ethical Imperative: No One Should Suffer for Systemic Failure

Justice must never be a gamble or left to chance. It must not depend on the temperament of a judge or the preparedness of an advocate. A just system must ensure:

· Universal access, irrespective of wealth or status

· Consistency and predictability, rooted in law—not personality or perception

· Timeliness, because justice delayed is justice denied

· Integrity and professionalism at every level of the process

· No citizen should lose a case due to a judge’s subjective bias

· No business should collapse because of a lawyer’s negligence or lack of preparation

· No system should claim legitimacy if it routinely fails the very people it is meant to serve

Peeping into the Future

We are living through Legal Revolution 5.0—an era defined not just by digitization, but by moral clarity and systemic reengineering. A future where technology, ethics, and human wisdom converge to create a more inclusive and responsive justice ecosystem. This transformation will lead to:

·  Mediation becoming the first step in all civil, commercial, and relational disputes

·  AI integration into the core of judicial and regulatory systems

·  Reorientation of judges and advocates from status-seekers to service providers

·  Radical transparency, accountability, and citizen-focus in legal institutions

The future of justice will not be built in the shadow of failing judges, arbitrators, or crumbling courtrooms. It will be built in the light of restorative dialogue, intelligent systems, and empathetic resolution. If the human judiciary continues to falter, it is both inevitable and just that people will turn to machines that do not err, and processes that do not exploit—systems that are faster, fairer, and freer from bias.

Mediation and AI are not threats to the legal profession—they are the course correction it desperately needs. They do not diminish the legal profession; they redeem its purpose. If judges, arbitrators, and advocates do not evolve—do not rise to the occasion—the gavel will not just fall silent, it will be replaced.

73 Years Young High Court of Rajasthan

Law and Legal Institutions are young forever with the dynamic energy existing within, which continues to evolve with every human relationship coming into existence. They ceaselessly, in spite of minor abrasions, march forward with poise, dignity and magnanimity, to protect and compensate the suppressed wills and unheard cries and also punish those who commit breach and violate law. Courts are the hub of social balance as it resolves conflicts and disputes from conception of being till the issue of secession certificate.
        Roscoe Pound in ‘Justice according to Law’ brilliantly penned:
        “We have always known that the judicial process does not at all times and in all places confirm absolutely and in all respects to our ideal of it. Despite all the checks with which we surround it, it does not come out in every case entirely as we could wish. But the striving for the ideal, I repeat, goes far to realize the ideal. It is the approximation to our ideal of it which is significant, not the falling short, which we seek continually to control and to reduce to a minimum”. (emphasis supplied)
          Greater Rajasthan was formed on March 30, 1949 with Sawai Man Singh II as the Rajpramukh and Hiralal Shastri as the Chief Minister. On that date High Courts were functioning in five states – Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur and Alwar. On August 29, 1949  Rajasthan High Court, Ordinance 1949 was notified and High Court of Rajasthan was inaugurated at Jodhpur by the Rajpramukh. Oath was administered to Justice K.K.Verma from Allahabad as Chief Justice of Rajasthan and the following 11 (eleven) Judges representing different states as judges of High Court of Rajasthan:
1.    Justice Naval Kishore and Justice Amer Singh of Jasol from Jodhpur
2.    Justice K.L. Bapna and Justice Mohd. Ibrahim from Jaipur
3.    Justice J.S. Ranawat and Justice Shardul Singh Mehta from Udaipur
4.    Justice Khem Chand Gupta from Kota
5.    Justice Tirlochan Dutt from Bikaner
6.    Justice D.S.Dave from Bundi
7.    Justice K.K.Sharma from Bharatpur
8.    Justice Anand Narain Kaul from Alwar
        The principal seat of High Court was kept at Jodhpur and benches at Jaipur, Udaipur, Bikaner and Kota. Shri K.S.Hajela was appointed as the first Advocate General of Rajasthan.
        On January 26, 1950 Constitution of India came into effect, Rajasthan was given the status of Class ‘B’ State and the strength of the judges was reduced to 6 (six). It was essential that the Judges must confirm to the eligibility provided under the Constitution. The result was that Hon’ble Chief Justice K.K.Verma, Justice Khem Chand Gupta, Justice Trilochan Dutta, Justice Sardool Sing Mehta retired on January 24, 1950 and Justice A. N. Kaul on March 3, 1950. Justice Naval Kishore was appointed as the acting Chief Justice and continued till January 1, 1951 when Justice K.N.Wanchoo from Allahabad was sworn in a Chief justice on January 2, 1951. Chief Justice K.N.Wanchoo continued as Chief Justice till August 10, 1958 when he was elevated as judge of Supreme Court of India. Justice K.N.Wanchoo completing a tenure of 7yy, 7mm, 12 dd, longest tenure by any Chief Justice of Rajasthan.
        From May 22, 1950 benches at Bikaner, Kota and Udaipur were abolished, but Jaipur Bench continued to function. In the vacancy caused two eminent lawyers – Shri I.N.Modi (29.01.1953) from Jodhpur and Shri D.M.Bhandari (26.08.1955) from Jaipur were elevated to the Bench. Jaipur bench was abolished in 1958 and was re-established on 31.01.1977.
        40 Chief Justices and 200 pusine Judges totaling to 240 judges have been elevated as judges of Rajasthan High Court. 53 of them have been from other High Courts. 8 Judges had two tenure either because of non confirmation and reappointment or transfer to other High Court and ghar waapasi. 23 Chief Justices and Judges have been elevated to Supreme Court, 8 of them having Rajasthan as their Permanent High Court (PHC) and one as Chief Justice of India.
        Chief Justice Dipak Misra in his foreword to ‘Understanding Supreme Court Better – 151 Facts you need to know’ beautifully articulated:
        “Information, sometimes is perceived as an unhealthy substitute for knowledge. On certain occasions, it is pointed out that knowledge is lost in information. Though these observations characterize and, in a way, distinctly compartmentalize between ‘knowledge’ and ‘information, yet a pregnant one, there are situations, places and institutions where information has the effect of potentiality to assume the position and platform of knowledge. However, it has to satisfy certain condition precedent i.e., precision, terminological exactitude and sincerity of effort...”
        With its nobility, fairness, integrity and deep understanding the High Court has continued to reach the common man. Looking forward for many more glorious and wonderful years, delivering justice to all as we have the brightest and beautiful minds on the bench, relentlessly supported by a highly experienced, knowledgeable and skilled bar.

Democracy, Politics and the Law - The judiciary as the last line of defense

All through the conference I have been hearing speakers, speaking about what has happened in the past. Law, Judges, Lawyers are mostly doing rear view mirror driving, my efforts today is to do a forward view driving, keeping an eye on what has gone by. The canvas of the subject in hand is very wide – Democracy, Politics and Law – The judiciary as the last line of defense, so I have put it under five heads – The Global shift, shift leading to new orientation of Democracy and Politics, the new orientation leading to conflicts, Rule of Law and the Role of Judiciary

 The Global Shift

The majority of the world has moved into Globalization 4.0. Globalization is free movement or flow of people, goods, information, ideas and services beyond national boundaries and across the globe, without restraint. Marshal races fought wars and became victorious using their muscle power or aristocracy of the sword. They looted, pillaged, plundered and raped other nations and transported people as slaves during Globalization 1.0. Expansion of religion and conversion of others in their fold also led to movement of people across the globe during Globalization 1.0.With trading and rise of currency, by human beings who created relationship on the basis of reason, merchandise and goods moved across the seas and land, during Globalization 2.0. Information, Ideas and knowledge moved across the globe during Globalization 3.0. Internet provided seamless infrastructure to this transmission.

Now, we have set foot in Globalization 4.0 marked by the movement of services globally, without movement of people or infrastructure, with high speed mobile internet, big data analysis, cloud technology and artificial intelligence. From Business Process Outsourcing to Knowledge Process Outsourcing to Legal Process Outsourcing there is explosion of e-services like Netflix, Fiverr, Up Work and Mechanical Turk etc. A 2015 World Bank study suggests gig economy is set to grow to US$ 25 billion by 2020. There are 167 listed collaboration platforms like Basecamp, Teamwork and Trello etc. Language translation services are helping below poverty line income people to enter the global economic mainstream.

Post 2015, nations are making efforts to take lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution at national level and are making all out efforts to compete in meaningful production of information, ideas, goods and services using artificial intelligence. There is a simulated arms race amongst technology companies in machine intelligence and learning.

All this is happening because individuals are moving from the third dimension to the fourth dimension. Human beings who were living as individual nomads during their first dimension existence, as tribes and town dwellers in their second dimension existence and as city and metro dwellers in a nation with a defined territory in the third dimension, have now moved beyond the physical, man-made boundaries into a metaphysical world. Physical location is losing its significance and human beings are finding themselves in more harmony with fellow beings irrespective of their race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. DNA tests have broken down exclusivity or superiority of blue blood or superiority by ancestry, which was deeply ingrained in the leaders who pushed their factions to great violence and wars.

The impact of this concurrent and simultaneous transition and its fallout is felt by all institutions, models of governance, politics, law and individuals. From United Nations to family structures, from banking to crypto currency wallets, the way wars are fought to carrying out agriculture, from terrorism to pick-pocketing, from global politics to village level affairs, from head of the state to the rag picker every structure is undergoing reorientation.

All these shifts and transitions and their impacts are directing citizens of the world to move towards a global democracy, global politics and global law, a border-less homogeneous world, where it is possible in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, and he is all over Africa,  to ‘wipe out every tear from every eye’. The pessimists say that we are living in a VUCA world, a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. The realists would say that we have to work together to create a SRIM world, a world that is Stable, Reliable, Inclusive and Multidisciplinary, while the optimists like me, would say that we are moving towards a HITAA world. A world that is more Harmonized, Integrated, Transparent, Accountable and Abundant.

Shift is leading to new orientation of Democracy and Politics

Effective political power in democracy can no longer be assumed, because of inclusiveness, demographic changes, immigration, polarization and unbundling of power. Power will have to be shared, bartered and won over by reason, with the new awareness dawning, using diverse forces, support and assistance at global, national, regional and local levels. Democracy has become complicated and even shambolic, as at many places there is emergence of singly party, with an authoritarian ruler. It looks as if Parliamentary democracy is under threat globally.

With adult franchise in place in all the democratic countries in the world all democratic governments are formed by the people and of the people, but they are failing to be for the people. Because people here are not the top social elite brass, but all those who were pushed back as backwards and underdeveloped have right to vote. The coalition of all the so called under privileged classes are assuming power and become elected majority and those who have continued to be in power for centuries find themselves to be out of power and reduced to an insignificant minority. Divide and rule and ruling by escalating conflicts amongst the minorities is being substituted by inclusive welfare, growth and development, by the locals who have assumed power.

Politics now, is not just a matter of sheer muscle power, the aristocracy of sword, supremacy of a race or race of war heads. Global harmony and consensus have become essential and this accord can only be reached by clearly understanding the larger picture and establishing the nexus between the goal and the path, between the object sought to be achieved and the process of achieving the object. Both the process and object has to reasonable, just and proper and their outcome should not lead to exploitation, suppression of any will or rise of unheard cries. Politics by authoritarianism is being replaced by politics by reasoning and a reasoning which is not limited to welfare of a class, race or gender, but for the welfare of one and all. All those who were pushed back over centuries are emerging back and are reaffirming their existence, women, blacks, browns, yellow, reds, LGBTQ etc. and there is no reversal of this fourth wave

The new orientation is leading to conflicts

All the phases, segments and stages of Globalization 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0; First, Second and Third Industrial Revolution; First, Second and Third dimension people; First, Second and third wave movements have not disappeared into oblivion. All of them have a quantum existence in a lateral spiral time along with the Fourth. Conflicts between those who exist at different levels are becoming sharper. Conflicts are emerging every moment between those who are still holding a tribal attitude; are fighting for expansion of territories, operating monopolies and creating cartels; those who find it impossible to accept, adapt and acclimate with the new emerging economic and social order and the evolving global dynamics forging ahead relentlessly.

Mass production of quality products by certain countries at a non-competitive price will certainly lead to wiping out of certain jobs and industries in other countries, which in turn will lead to mass unemployment and social unrest. By 2022 the average human task hours will be reduced from 71 % to 58 % and those performed by machines and algorithms will increase from 29% to 42%. 62% of organizations data processing, information search and transmission tasks will be performed by machines. All this will create more disagreements, clashes, disputes and litigation. Siphoning off of taxpayers hard earned money by those who get into power and parking them in tax havens, by camouflaging illegalities or bribing persons holding power, is bringing about serious conflict between the governing and the governed.

Rule of law

Though history of mankind is a history of glories of wars, loots, plunder, pillage and rapes, but history has also taught us that nothing has ever been achieved by violence, destruction, demolition and devastation. The rise of rule of law is the rise of the civil society to protect itself from any form of criminality, illegality and exploitation.

These inter and intra conflicts at global, national, state and family level can only be checked and resolved by continuously affirming the rule of law. Rule of law will have to act more firmly as the protector of civil society, then ever. Since the Magna Carta the rule of law has firmly established itself and has continued to deal with all forms of crises as and when they continued to occur in human intercourse in all the nations established by law as contra-distinguished from autocracies and military regimes.

In a world of multi-level governance and global legal pluralism, subjecting political actors to the rule of law represents a particular challenge. The unbundling of authority at different levels of governance and the lack of overreaching framework governing their interactions make the attribution of responsibilities more difficult and governance failures likely. However according to me, these alleged weaknesses of governance beyond the nation stage could turn out to be its greatest strengths. Because the different layers of governance can work out like checks on each other, thereby hedging the exercise of political power and strengthening accountability as well as contributing to the multi-level protection of human rights

Rule of law is not static. It will continue to evolve as technology continues to help hasten the rate of evolution further. Global politics will have to rise above dogmas, isms, group thinking, crusader mentality and anti-intellectualism which divides the world into an in-group and out-group, believers and haters, righteous and wrong-tous. Rule of law is the only way of respecting the equal moral worth of all human beings and work to build equality across the world. I sense that some people are rather gloomy about the future of the rule of law. I do not share their pessimism as I am a hard core optimist. Responsible exercise of judicial review is both a precondition and characteristic feature of a society that values the maintenance of rule of law.

Role of Judiciary

Judiciary by its inherent nature assumes jurisdiction to determine all forms of conflicts arising out of abrasions in the society. As the conflicts grow deeper and sharper, which is bound to happen amongst and between all institutions like technologists, entrepreneurs, families, global NGOs and governments.

The process of litigation is creative for the judges and advocates; decisive for the litigant; educative and informative for the people who wish to be aware of various dimensions of inter and intra-human expressions, interactions and relationships, their rights and duties and rights and duties of the institutions; entertaining for the public in general; a source of plugging holes for the legislators and realization of the errors committed by executive, deliberately or un-intentionally. This activity also acts as a process of balancing powers as the real purpose continues to reach justice by the process of dialectics. In the judicial process we see dialectics live, eliminating errors by a process of bar bench legal reasoning, a note slowly rising to crescendo, by looking into the issue in hand, precedents and the direction and constantly applying the principles of rule of law to the new facets as they are evolving with technological changes and bringing about a new socio-economic structure.

Judiciary will have to act at all levels, from local to global, with all the power of wisdom at its command, both as a shield and as a sword. Shield to protect any and every exploitation, sword to punish the exploiter and in the process resolve the conflicts, expound the truth and provide justice for all. With judicial activism protecting human rights, crusader against injustice in all forms, as the watchman of the civil society, judiciary is coming out of the Machiavellian shell of limited power or as Alexander Hamilton said the weakest arm of the Government, without sword or purse, as its assigned role was limited to merely interpreting the laws.

But that is not wholly true. While interpreting the equality clause, one of the profound pillars of rule of law, it has the power to strike down all forms of arbitrary actions, convict the head of the state for corruption, hold as null and void legislation abridging or violating equality. Believe you me friends, this is not some serious inroads into the structure of separation of power; it is the only road to judicious use of power to provide the necessary protective umbrella to a seemingly fractured civil society.

When legislature and executive fail the people, the man in the street rushes to the lawman, who in turn rushes to the court to find protection of judiciary which affirms the rule of law in every case that comes to its fold. With parliamentary democracy under threat and conflicts becoming more sharper, to protect the civil and civilized society, judiciary will have to play a firmer and larger role than it ever did. As a protector of constitutionalism and the rule of law, judiciary is the first and the last line of defense for the civil society and the mankind.

SpotLaw Apps - An idea finally encapasulated after 34 years

From the moment a being is conceived in the womb till the issuance of succession certificate, first breath to the last, form abortions to wills, from juvenile justice to death sentence, from free grants to taxation, from admission to education institute to post retirement benefits, from equality to desegregation, from Presidents election to compassionate appointments, from international and inter-state boundaries and water disputes, from anti-dumping and disinvestment to medical reimbursements and interest on pensions, from excesses by armies in foreign territories to anticipatory and cancellation of bails, from conviction of terrorists, murderers and child rapists to sexual harassment in office places, there are cases and there are judgments. Judges, lawyers, litigants, facts, issues and laws are different, jurisdictions are different but there is always a litigation touching every facet of human co-existentialism and a judge delivering a judgement determining the cause. Law governs every aspects and every issue of every human being.The impact of decision making process by Courts touches almost every aspect of human existence, social behavior and States governance. Every human being has his actions and legal rights regulated by laws, whether he likes it or not, whether he is aware of them or not, whether he fights for them or not. Every one of these issues ends up and is dealt with by the apex country of that country and is regulated by some Act, Rule, Regulation, circular etc. One party loosing, other party winning and every person who reads it commenting.

Sooner or later every being gets involved in one way or other with assertion for access to truth and justice and this is common to all jurisprudence, uniform to all judicial systems and consistent for all persons associated with judiciary.Judgments are creative work of art for the judges and advocates; decisive for the litigant; educative and informative for the people who wish to be aware of various dimensions of inter and intra-human expressions, interactions and relationships, their rights and duties; entertaining for the public in general; a source of plugging holes for the legislators and realization of the errors committed by executive, deliberately or unintentionally.

Everybody in the world is presumed to know law, but it is difficult to spot law, when it is really required. Neither judgments nor statutes are available on a specified subject and searching using word search is cumbersome. SpotLaw Apps seek to create an app consisting of a constantly updating encyclopedia of judgments from the Apex Courts of India, UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia and those referred in them. This unique app will enable judges, advocates, academicians, legislators, law students, corporate houses, media persons, litigants and others carry on legal research using a smart phone. SpotLaw will not be merely a word search app, but shall be supported by a structured database containing researched data which works as an online legal manual and allows specific searches on the basis of:

• Name of Appellant

• Name of Respondent

• Citation

• Date of Judgment

• Name of Hon'ble Judge

• Statute - Act, Rules etc

to begin with, and finally add

• Subject, Issues, Decision

• Legal maxims

• Books and Periodicals

• Name of Advocate

• Amendment of Statutes

A through research of law requires finding out the latest judgment in which the judgment has been subsequently followed or over ruled across the common law countries and also latest judgment in which the Article, Section or Rule of an Act or Rule has been considered. A thorough research also requires amendments of the statutes made from time to time. With a few clicks you can get complete analysis of the subject, issue, statute along with the full text of judgment. With a team of innovative lawyers and pragmatic software developers, we proudly present SpotLaw for your smart phone. SpotLaw extensive database covers Judgments of Supreme Court of India since 1950 till date which are updated on a daily basis. All judgments are curated by an expert team of lawyers and academicians who carefully analyze each judgment and specifically classify them under well-structured parameters, which covers all possible factors on which the users seek to search judgment to support the grounds and submissions made by them.

Role of Information Technology in dispensation of Justice

Truth, Justice and Bliss are the basic and fundamental nature of every human being and the social order. Illegality, injustice and disharmony are choice-less evils that continue to come into existence in the individual and the society. Judges, Advocates and others associated with them, continue to work as kidneys of the system, to detox the society. Conflicts, clashes and litigation have continued, since human civilization came into existence. Contract was created when Shri Ram hugged Sugreev and Vibheeshan and promised them to be made the king of Kishkindha and Sri Lanka respectively. A breach would have led to litigation and during that time resolved by the power of sword, than the power of pen. Justice was done when Shri Ram executed Raavan, for he had brought about a total imbalance in the economic structure, by amassing almost the entire gold existing on earth. Legal relationships, laws, litigation and justice existed even when Information Technology was not existing and was than more effective, efficient and economical.

In this yug, the age of IT started in 1955 when the number of white collar employees surpassed the blue collar, in USA and Europe. When I joined the profession in 1976 in Supreme Court, the settlement of weekly cause list was carried out by the Registrar at 4:30 pm on every Thursday in the Chief Justice Court. I had inherited AIR from 1914 onwards, had purchased SCR, Supreme Court Encyclopedia by Gopala Krishnan provided nominal Table Index, Basu and Mullah were the authenticated Text Books and Manuals were the source of finding the precedents. The only way to remain updated and to refrain from cutting a sorry figure and look around when the judge said “have you looked into the latest judgment delivered by us”, was to go through the cyclostyled judgments circulated by SCBA and regularly maintain personal registers.  As juniors, we had to run from court to court and shake shoulders of our colleague to find out, which matter was going on in the court and go back and tell our senior that he need to rush or need not rush to that court. Sometimes the matter was already over by the time he could reach. The bare acts were barely available.

Today all that looks ancient, we get bookmarked cause list on our mobiles, judgments can be found on tablets and electronic display system helps us to watch other court even when we are on our legs in the court room. Statutes are available within hours of their receiving the assent of the President. But the judges are overburdened by number of briefs and judgments and are at times conscious about the mounting arrears while disposing the cases. The judges have to read much more today, to have a total portrait of the true facts, keep their head high and impart justice without compromising with their conscience, than their predecessors and one basic reason for that, is explosion of information all around in multiple formats.

Three things are basic, fundamental and vital in every litigation and must never be lost sight off.
First, nobody loves advocates. Nobody would enter the office of an advocate unless he is in real trouble, unless his shoe is pinching and the nail is not decipherable and professional legal help is required to resolve the issue and put life in order. There comes the role of the advocates.
Second, every law or litigation comes into existence because there is suppression of a will, exploitation of a being by another and the cry has gone unheard because of some person dominating the existing social forces, by inhuman means. There comes the role of the Judges.
Third, all judges at all times, sitting in the temple of justice, see the cause and also see the persons and issues behind the cause and also the direction in which the society is moving and make all out efforts to do complete justice between the parties. That is how and why truth and justice exist and we still have a hope.

The litmus test of evolution and eminence of every institution today and hereafter will be the extant of use of information technology made by its stake holders.  It is not difficult to fully understand, appreciate and implement the extant of use of IT in dispensation of justice, as there is no rocket science involved in it. The difficulty is in making the stakeholders’ use it in every field of their activities. Use of IT in courts by NIC will not alone be effective unless, advocates and their clerks are well trained and tuned to use it.

Use of IT is a great bounty in the hands of us all, as it can be effectively used for collating, organizing and interlinking information. But a few things are imperative and if we do not pursue them, IT will be there but not as handmade to justice, but as money spinner for IT Consultants, hardware manufacturers and others and a fashion statement by flashing light on our own face and saying ‘Look! We also use IT”. We have to have a correct complete and overall picture of the entire litigating process, with the role of each stake holder well defined and the most important is the economics of each stakeholder. Every stakeholder in the legal industry is not working as an NGO, using tax payers money as grants or charities, but we are all here as professionals who are paid for speaking the truth and we demand respect and reverence, for we hold self - esteem, dignity and pride, in what we do. Finally we have to watch the vested interest of those who survive on chaos, confusion and commotion and those who are supporting them consciously, unconsciously or even remotely, for their interest is to lead the institution to legal rigor mortis and disgrace.

Look around and see if over 300 existing vacancies of judges in High Courts are not filled, because the issue is referred to a constitutional bench or otherwise, if cases are not determined speedily, if justice is not imparted in time, who is empowered. The answer is obvious, all those elements, whose very existence is based on presence of injustice, exploitation and poverty in the society and they are everywhere, from politics to beggars. Social predators continue to wait for assignment of throwing out tenants, recovery of created and illegal debts, holdings bandhs and gherao, shouting slogans, stalling court proceedings, making government fall and making the great nation look mean and small and IT makes such information available, easier and faster.

The installation of electronic display devices in 1986 in Supreme Court giving court number and item number was the first step in making use of IT and today we can get live display boards of all the courts on our mobile is a long leap, but that took more than 25 years. From getting judgments of courts on the tablets in a structured format to the ultimate, introduction of Artificial Intelligence in litigation is a long way to go and will take another 25 years or more, if we start today. Some of the countries are already using Artificial Intelligence for last over a decade in sentencing policy and other areas.

 IT can be implemented for dispensing justice by moving information seamlessly in the following manner with ease, if there is a Will to do it:

• Providing Neutral Citation for all judgments delivered by Supreme Court and 24 High Courts, to eliminate the chaos created by over 600 law reports published all over the country and now web judgments. All giving their own independent citations. Neutral Citation was implemented in Canada, UK, USA and Canada in year 2000, we are just 15 years behind
•  Creating database of judgments on each subject and issues and linking them with the subject index used in the court for classification of cases and making the data available to Advocates. This will bring more uniformity in decision making process and assist Advocates to give meaningful legal opinion to their clients;
• Entering DIN Number, PAN Number, Adhaar Card No. or any other identifiable number of each litigant, witness, deponent in each litigation and have a common linked database on litigating persons and those associated with them. We have over three crore pending cases and if we are able to create the interlinking database, believe you, me friends, we will be able to filter about thirty lakh professional criminals and professional litigants
• Creating a common database of litigation in which Government or any Article 12 Authority is a party and sharing it between Courts, Government Department, PSU, Law Department, Attorney General and Advocate General Office to enable legislature to plug holes where necessary and put an end to several frivolous litigations and putting them on notice in similar issues
• Existing data on decided cases should be moved from High Court Registry to Supreme Court Registry in cases filed in Supreme Court. This will save enormous costs and man hours of the country;
• Creating and using database on advocates on number and nature of filings, appearances, written submissions, articles published, presentations made, conferences attended to have some objective basis for appointment of advocates as judges to High Courts. Family, chamber, caste relationship is an anathema for holding such high station and injustice to other advocates joining the bar;
• Implementation of One Bar one Vote for each Bar Association by using a common data base of advocates already available with Bar Council of India and having electronic voting. This will make the Associations more effective, meaningful and purposeful. Every leader of the bar will have his defined territories to work on and make them more professional;
• There is a need of over two million IT trained clerks or Para Legal Associates to support over one million advocates in the country and maintain their office;
• Creating database on judgments delivered by judges of High Courts and how they fared in Supreme Court, to have some objective basis for appointment of High Court judges to Supreme Court;
• Implementing Court Live to bring about more transparency and fully implement the avowed principle of open door justice;

 In every case the Judge is on a chess board making whole hearted efforts to make justice win. On the other side is injustice continuously digging pits, confusing issues, flashing baits, veiling the truth, creating non-existent fears to make justice lose. Information technology if used to its full proper potential, is one of the greatest tool in the hand of judge, to make quick moves in dispensation of speedy justice. But to make its full use, judges will have to get all the stake holders trained and aware of interconnected, interlinked, inter-weaved and interlaced databases on judgments, statutes, subjects, issues, decisions, litigants, books, articles and a process that filter the entire information and also suggest possible, probable answers and alternatives, to enable the judges impart justice for all.