India’s Supreme Court has vowed to investigate a lower court judge accused of basing a decision on fictitious precedents generated by artificial intelligence, labeling the incident as potential misconduct in a property dispute case.
The controversy stems from an August 2025 ruling by a junior civil judge in Andhra Pradesh state, who cited four non-existent prior judgments to dismiss a defendant’s objections.
The defendant appealed to the state high court, which confirmed the citations were fabricated but upheld the verdict, deeming it a “good faith” mistake.
The high court noted: “The citations may be non-existent, but if the learned trial court has considered the correct principles of law and its application to the facts of the case is also correct, mere mentioning of incorrect or non-existent rulings/citations in the order cannot be a ground to set aside the order.”
When queried, the junior judge admitted to relying on AI for the rulings, stating they “believed the judgments were genuine and had no ulterior motive to deliberately misrepresent or misquote the verdict.”
The Supreme Court, hearing a further challenge, stayed the lower court’s order and described the AI use as “an error in decision making” but an act of “misconduct.”
It has summoned the nation’s attorney general, solicitor general, and the Bar Council of India for a full review, with possible sanctions looming for the judge involved.
