ANCHOR Guidelines: A Constitutional Blueprint for Human-Centred Judicial AI in India

Abstract

In a rapidly advancing technological era, there is an urgent need to address how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated into India’s overloaded courts without forgoing constitutional safeguards. To that end, this article surveys and analyses thirty years of the development of AI in the legal field, empirical research on bias and public confidence, and the regimes of the United States, China and Europe, in order to identify the gaps in explainability, accountability and doctrinal congruence. Anchored in Articles 14 and 21, the doctrine of the separation of powers, and judicial review under Articles 32 and 226, the article presents the ANCHOR (Accountability, Non-delegation, Constitutional conformity, Human Oversight, and Review) Guidelines to govern AI as a co-judge and not a surrogate. ANCHOR requires a risk-based liability framework, mandatory explainability requirements, periodic bias audits and effective human-override procedures. To test the framework, the article sets out a pilot in three diverse courts, with metrics on case resolution rates, judge-AI agreement and litigant confidence. By combining constitutional theory with a clear roadmap for implementation, the work offers a feasible, rights-upholding template for the use of AI in Indian courts.