Tension at London university event with CJI as attendee raises questions on ‘dissent in India’; CJP reacts

At an event held at a university in London where Surya Kant was speaking, organisers reportedly restricted questions that were unrelated to the theme of artificial intelligence, asking attendees to remain focused on the topic.

During the session, an attendee attempted to question him on India’s democratic record and alleged concerns about suppression of dissent in the context of AI governance. The anchor, however, stated that such questions were off-topic, leading to a tense exchange between participants and organisers, PTI reported.

Saurav Das shared a video claiming that the Chief Justice of India was heckled during the event, with a student urging, “Give us some respect please,” amid the disagreement over questioning.

CJP was set up after Chief Justice Surya Kant reportedly called young people who criticised the government "cockroaches" and "parasites" during a hearing. Kant later said his comments were taken out of context.

Dipke, a political communications strategist who formerly worked with the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), created the fictional party online on May 16.

Dipke has called for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has faced criticism over alleged irregularities in several key examinations.

"Technology itself is neither inherently benevolent nor inherently harmful. Its impact depends upon the legal, political and ethical frameworks within which societies choose to deploy it. The responsibility of law, therefore, is neither to resist technological progress nor to surrender unquestioningly before it. Its responsibility is to ensure that technological power remains accountable to constitutional values, democratic legitimacy and human dignity," he said.

Justice Kant said AI is now an operational reality that is reshaping governance, commerce, warfare, communication, public administration, and increasingly, the exercise of judicial and sovereign power itself.

Opportunities for strengthening the administration of justice and across jurisdictions, courts are increasingly leveraging AI-driven tools to assist with legal research, case management, translation services, transcription of proceedings, document classification and identification of judicial precedents.

"When deployed responsibly and under appropriate human supervision, such technologies can help reduce delays, improve efficiency, expand access to legal information and enable judges and court administrators to focus their attention on the more nuanced and inherently human aspects of adjudication. AI, therefore, should not be viewed solely as a source of legal complexity, but also as a powerful instrument for advancing the constitutional promise of timely, accessible and effective justice," he said.

"A model may be trained on datasets collected across multiple jurisdictions, refined through computational infrastructure situated elsewhere, deployed through cloud-based systems spanning several continents and ultimately, produce decisions affecting individuals far removed from every point in that chain," he said.

Thanking Birkbeck College for hosting this important conversation, the CJI said at moments of profound technological transformation, dialogue between courts, universities, governments and civil societies becomes indispensable.

(With inputs from agencies)