Discuss the role of emerging technologies like AI/ML in improving access to justice, with reference to the eCourts Project.

Access to justice, flowing from Article 21 and Article 39A, is obstructed less by absence of courts than by distance, cost and delay. The eCourts Mission Mode Project — Phase-III approved in September 2023 with a ₹7,210 crore outlay over four years [1] — treats emerging technologies as the primary instrument for closing this gap, though technology supplements rather than substitutes institutional reform.

How emerging technologies widen access

• Digitisation of legacy records: Phase-III targets 3,108 crore pages; over 224 crore pages in High Courts and 354 crore in District Courts were digitised by September 2025 [1]. Machine-readable records are the precondition for any AI application.
• AI/ML applications: automated case-flow management, translation of judgments into regional languages, and transcription of proceedings reduce the language and literacy barriers that exclude rural litigants.
• Cloud and data infrastructure: a cloud repository plus the National Judicial Data Grid turns case status into a public, searchable resource, reducing dependence on intermediaries [1].
• Last-mile delivery: 4,400 e-Sewa Kendras across court complexes, with e-Filing, e-Payments and video conferencing, extend digital services to those without devices — bridging, not widening, the digital divide [1].
• Fiscal commitment: Union Budget 2026 allocates ₹1,200 crore for eCourts Phase-III alongside ₹810 crore for district court infrastructure, totalling ₹2,010 crore [2] — signalling that digital and physical capacity advance together.

Limits to be recognised

• Case disposal depends on evidentiary quality, investigation and advocate conduct — factors no algorithm resolves [2].
• Algorithmic tools risk opacity and bias; hence AI is confined to assistive roles, with adjudication remaining judicial.
• Uneven connectivity and digital literacy can reproduce existing inequalities.

Emerging technologies are thus enablers of procedural access — compressing time, distance and information asymmetry — rather than a cure for pendency. Their promise is best realised when digitisation is paired with judicial appointments, physical infrastructure and human-in-the-loop safeguards, advancing the constitutional guarantee of equal justice and SDG-16's goal of accessible institutions.