Supreme Court Raises Concerns Over Lawyers Using AI-Generated Fake Citations
Anmol Kaur Bawa
17 Feb 2026 1:46 PM IST
The Supreme Court today flagged the issue of lawyers submitting AI-drafted petitions that contain fake case citations.
The exchange happened before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice BV Nagarathna.
"We are alarmed to reflect now- some of the lawyers have started AI to draft. It is absolutely uncalled for," said Chief Justice of Surya Kant. Justice Nagarathna added that she recently came across a citation "Mercy v. Mankind", which never existed.
The CJI mentioned a similar instance that happened in Justice Dipankar Datta's Court. "Not one, series of such judgements were cited," CJI said.
Justice Nagarathna also flagged another concern where the citation would be correct, but the fake quotes are attributed to the judgment. She said that it created an additional burden on the part of judges. Last week also, Justice Nagarathna had raised concerns about the similar practice of citing fake quotations.
Justice Bagchi lamented that the art of legal drafting has suffered a setback in recent times, observing that Special Leave Petitions today often consist merely of quotations from judgments. Recalling an earlier generation of advocates, he said doyens such as Senior Advocate Ashok Kumar Sen were masters of drafting, whose pleadings were precise, concise and original.
Recently, the Bombay High Court had imposed costs on a litigant for citing AI-generated fake citations.