India’s Supreme Court has called on the central government to develop binding rules on the ethical use of AI in surveillance and content moderation, reflecting rising judicial concern over state deployment of AI tools and recent moves to regulate AI in the legal system.
India’s Supreme Court has asked the central government to examine proposals for binding rules on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in surveillance and content moderation, in a sign of growing judicial concern over how state agencies deploy AI tools. The bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, said the issues raised were highly technical and fell within the policy domain, and it disposed of the petition while directing authorities to consider the suggestions raised by petitioner Narendra Kumar Goswami.
Goswami had sought disclosure of all existing and planned high-risk AI systems used by ministries and government agencies in welfare, policing, surveillance and content regulation. He also urged the court to push for a high-powered expert committee to frame rules on algorithmic impact assessments, bias audits, transparency, human oversight and data protection safeguards. The court noted that Goswami had already submitted a representation to the government in February and said he was free to supplement it.
The case comes amid a broader judicial push in India to impose limits on AI use in the legal system. In June 2026, the Supreme Court circulated draft rules for AI in courts that would allow the technology for research, translation, transcription, scheduling and administration, but not for deciding cases, granting bail, imposing sentences or assessing witness credibility. The draft also said AI outputs must remain advisory and subject to human review.
That scrutiny sharpened in July, when the Supreme Court adopted a zero-tolerance approach to unverified AI-generated precedents after fabricated case law surfaced in lower tribunal proceedings. The court said such material could not be cited without rigorous verification and also asked the Bar Council of India to consider norms to stop lawyers from submitting hallucinated or fake authorities as genuine legal precedent. Together, the recent rulings suggest the court is moving to separate limited, supervised AI assistance from any role in judgment, legal authority or state surveillance.
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