The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over what it described as an “alarming” rise in the use of Artificial Intelligence by lawyers to draft petitions, warning that the practice is leading to serious errors and inaccuracies.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice B. V. Nagarathna and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a public interest litigation seeking guidelines on political speeches.

At the outset, the Court observed that the petition appeared to have been prepared in haste.

“We are alarmed to reflect that some lawyers have started using AI to draft petitions. It is absolutely uncalled for,” the Bench remarked.

Highlighting the problem of fabricated or inaccurate citations, Justice Nagarathna recalled an instance where a lawyer cited a case titled “Mercy vs Mankind,” which did not exist. She added that even where real Supreme Court judgments are cited, lawyers often attribute quotations that are not found in the actual rulings. Such practices, she said, make verification difficult and impose an additional burden on judges.

The Chief Justice noted that a similar issue had earlier arisen before a Bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta, where none of the precedents cited in the petition were found to exist.

Justice Bagchi, meanwhile, lamented the decline in the quality of legal drafting. He observed that many special leave petitions today are largely compilations of lengthy extracts from earlier judgments, with minimal articulation of independent legal grounds. Referring to senior advocates of an earlier era, he cited Ashoke Kumar Sen as an example of precise and accurate drafting.

The Court also noted that careless reliance on AI tools has begun to surface in High Courts as well. Recently, the Bombay High Court imposed costs on a petitioner for citing an incorrect, AI-generated case reference.