‘Constitution should show way if law is silent on AI-deepfakes’:CJI Surya kant says dignity, liberty and equality do not change with technology

Chief Justice of India Justice Surya kant said that when the law has no answer, the Constitution should guide the courts. Courts are now facing new questions such as copyright for AI-generated works and deepfakes. He said the law would be unlikely to provide ready answers to these questions. Every such question would have to be answered in the light of the rights enshrined in the Constitution. This is because the Constitution’s promise of dignity, liberty and equality does not change with advances in technology. CJI Suryakant attended a ceremony held on Friday to mark the Delhi High Court’s 60th anniversary. Questions about AI would have been hard to imagine a decade ago, says CJI CJI Surya Kant said courts now face questions that would have been difficult even to imagine ten years ago. These include whether works generated by AI can receive copyright protection, how the law should respond to deepfakes and how individual rights can be protected while technological development is encouraged. He said the Delhi High Court could meet a changing world and unfamiliar questions with an open mind, but must not lose sight of the person the court exists to protect. The Chief Justice added that the Supreme Court has always had a special relationship with the Delhi High Court. This was not because the two courts are geographically close, he said, but because the Delhi High Court had eased the Supreme Court’s burden more than any other high court. SC judge jokes Delhi HC judges “appear more powerful” than its own Supreme Court judge Justice Vikram Nath praised the Delhi High Court’s contribution to the development of law and to institutional progress over the past six decades. Speaking at the ceremony, he joked that Delhi High Court judges sometimes appear more powerful than their Supreme Court counterparts. Other Supreme Court judges, Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Nitin Vasudev Sambre, and sitting and former judges of the High Court also attended. Delhi High Court was established in 1966 CJI Suryakant said that the Delhi High Court’s responsibilities were exceptionally wide-ranging. When the court was established in 1966, it was not merely another High Court serving a rapidly growing city. It was a court located at the centre of the country’s political and administrative life. As a result, cases involving government power, individual liberty and public accountability were bound to reach it. He said the impact of these cases extended far beyond the capital. Over time, the Delhi High Court’s responsibilities have increased manifold. Over the past few decades, Delhi has expanded in every direction. The city’s business activity has grown and lakhs of people have settled there. From four judges to a complex institution Delhi has expanded in every direction over recent decades, he noted, with business activity growing and millions of people settling there. Caseloads, and the numbers of lawyers and litigants, have risen with it. The court, which began with four judges, now handles many kinds of complex dispute, and the CJI said it deserved credit for meeting these demands. He said the court had significantly enriched civil and commercial law, and that in 2009 it set up India’s first arbitration centre attached to a High Court. Its steady move towards electronic filing and digital processes, he added, showed a willingness to embrace change.