Need national-level legal academy to tackle challenges emerging from AI, cybercrimes: CJI Surya Kant

Panaji: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Friday underscored the need for a national-level legal academy to train lawyers across the country to tackle challenges emerging from AI and cybercrimes.

Kant was addressing the inaugural session of the Bar Council of India’s National Conference and Symposium on Mediation at India International University of Legal Education and Research in South Goa.

“We are entering an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a powerful tool for helping the legal platform, but technology is also leading us to different kinds of crimes,” he said.

The CJI said some cybercrimes are “completely unheard of”.

“The way cybercriminals are innovating with new modes of crimes, the challenges (before the legal system) will become larger and more serious in the days to come,” he said.

Kant said he has been wondering how the members of the Bar can equip themselves to face the challenges that will emerge in future.

“When you are dealing with cybercrime, you are dealing with the victim of a crime by cybercriminals. Are you professionally equipped to face such a kind of challenge?” he asked.

The CJI said he feels that there should be a national-level legal academy like the National Judicial Academy.

“The time has come for the members of the Bar for periodical training. This cannot be for 48 hours, or a one-day or two-day capsule. This might require vigorous training running into a couple of months in the in-house training academy, where we will have domain experts,” he said.

Kant said that unless training modules are prepared and taught by subject experts, it will be difficult for members of the Bar to deal with the varied challenges their litigants will face.

The time has come for the Bar Council to chart its plans, establish a professional course or a dedicated institute, he said.

He added that such training will enable members of the Bar to compete with lawyers from other jurisdictions who handle international disputes.