Delhi High Court to examine Akasa Air's claim of AI use in district court judgment

The Delhi High Court recently stayed a district court judgment directing Akasa Air to pay ₹1.08 crore to a travel agent, after the airline raised concerns that the district court judge appears to have used artificial intelligence (AI) to draft the ruling.

The Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh and Justice Madhu Jain stated that, prima facie, the manner in which the district court judgment has been drafted indicated AI use.

However, it observed that the matter will have to be examined in more detail before arriving at such conclusions.

“The manner of drafting and the manner in which the text distinguishing the case laws is set out in the impugned judgement, prima facie, gives an impression that there is some AI softwares which may have been used for the same. However, at this stage, it cannot be conclusively said until further examination as to whether any AI software has been used by the ld. District Judge and if so, whether the same judgement has been properly reviewed or not," the April 30 order said.

The Court added that if the district court judgment has cited non-existent propositions of law as claimed by Akasa, it would be a matter of concern.

“If non-existent propositions are attributed to judgements, it is a matter of concern," the order reads.

The matter will be heard next on August 20.

The case concerns a suit filed by ABS Tour and Travels, a Delhi-based tour operator, against Akasa's parent company, SVN Aviation Private Limited.

In April 2023, ABS booked 640 seats on Akasa Air on Delhi-Goa and Goa-Delhi routes for travel during the peak festive period between December 23, 2023 and January 13, 2024.

The travel agent had paid ₹4,82,640, which made up 25 per cent of the fare, through the airline’s portal, following which passenger name records (PNRs) were generated.

More than a month later, in May 2023, the airline cancelled the bookings. The advance amount was refunded nearly three months later, in August 2023.

ABS sued Akasa over this turn of events, seeking damages from the airline over the loss of profits due to the cancellation of bookings made for the festive season.

The district court passed a decree directing the airlines to pay ₹1.08 crore for loss of profits to the tour operator.

Akasa Air challenged this ruling before the High Court.

Notably, counsel representing Akasa Air alleged that the district court’s judgment was written using artificial intelligence. He stated that the AI use in the judgment is evident from the fact that non-existent propositions of law were attributed to Supreme Court judgments.

The High Court has now stayed the district court judgment, provided Akasa Air deposits ₹20 lakhs with the Registrar General by May 30.

It has also sought the case records from the district court, and asked ABS Tours and Travels to respond to Akasa Air's appeal.

Advocates Gaurav Gupta, Shouryendu Ray, Yashendra Singhwal and Istela Jameel appeared for SNV Aviation Pvt Ltd (Akasa Air).

Advocates Abhinay Sharma, Atul Sharma, Pooran Roy Chand and Sakshi Tripathi appeared for ABS Tours and Travels.

[Read order]