# Adalat AI brings transcription tools to India’s courts

> The nonprofit’s software is used in more than 6,000 courtrooms across 11 states. A study is testing whether it can help cases move faster.

Oossa · 2026-10-28 · https://oossa.com/en/adalat-ai-brings-transcription-tools-to-india-s-courts

Adalat AI is using speech-recognition software and other administrative tools to help clear paperwork bottlenecks in India’s courts. Its technology has reached more than 6,000 courtrooms across 11 states, Semafor reports. One use is recording witness testimony: instead of writing out each answer, a judge dictates what should be entered into the record, and both sides review the text on screen before the hearing moves on.

The checked transcript is then submitted as the court’s official record of the testimony. Adalat AI’s co-founder and CEO, Utkarsh Saxena, says the tools are meant to handle administrative work, not make legal decisions. The nonprofit also builds software for managing cases and court documents.

## The goal is to give judges time back

The paperwork burden can be intense. Kerala judge Suresh Babu described the routine in Adalat AI’s annual report as “writing, writing, writing, all day.” The organization calls itself the “plumbers of the court system,” a description of its focus on fixing slow administrative processes rather than changing how judges decide cases.

The stakes extend beyond convenience. In 2024, nearly three in four people in Indian prisons were being held without a conviction while awaiting processing. That figure underscores the human cost of delays, but the available information does not establish that Adalat AI’s tools have reduced pretrial detention or shortened cases.

## Will faster records mean faster cases?

Adalat AI says its internal studies have found major improvements in the number of witnesses heard and orders issued at courts using its tools. Those are the organization’s own findings; a randomized evaluation with research center J-PAL is underway, and no results are reported yet. The central question is whether smoother paperwork leads to cases being completed sooner.

Some jurisdictions in India now require Adalat AI technology for recording witness testimony. The approach has a parallel in Singapore, whose courts introduced AI-powered transcription tools in December 2023. Neither example, by itself, establishes how much these systems shorten court cases.

## The facts

- Adalat AI’s tools are used in more than 6,000 courtrooms across 11 Indian states.
- The software can transcribe judge-dictated witness testimony, which both parties check before it becomes the official record.
- Adalat AI says its internal studies found increases in witnesses heard and orders issued at courts using its tools.
- A randomized evaluation with J-PAL is underway; no results are reported in the Semafor account.
- In 2024, nearly three in four people in Indian prisons were held without a conviction while awaiting processing.

## Why it matters

For judges and court users, checked speech-to-text records could reduce time spent writing testimony by hand. Adalat AI reports improvements in witnesses heard and orders issued, but whether that translates into shorter cases or less time spent awaiting trial remains unknown.

## Sources & references

1. [AI takes on the paperwork clogging India’s court system](https://www.semafor.com/article/10/26/2026/ai-takes-on-the-paperwork-clogging-indias-court-system) – Semafor, 2026-10-28

Last updated: 2026-10-28