Algorithmic Justice Or Algorithmic Bias? Examining The Constitutional Limits Of Artificial Intelligence In India’s Criminal Justice System
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 19
- 2 min read
Aryan Verma, LL.B. (Hons.) University of Allahabad
ABSTRACT
Facial recognition cameras trained on protest sites, a predictive-policing dashboard colouring Delhi’s neighbourhoods by projected crime risk, and a High Court bail order that pauses, mid-reasoning, to consult a chatbot India’s criminal justice system has begun to acquire artificial intelligence one procurement contract at a time, without a single statute drafted with algorithms in mind. This paper asks whether that acquisition can survive Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution and the common-law principles of natural justice that give those Articles their operative content. It argues that the doctrinal materials for an answer already exist the anti-arbitrariness principle of Royappa and Maneka Gandhi, the proportionality standard of Puttaswamy, the reviewability principle of Anuradha Bhasin, and the anti- vagueness doctrine of Shreya Singhal but that no case has yet welded them into a standard capable of being applied to a machine-generated output. Reading these strands together with the EU AI Act’s risk-based architecture and the cautionary lessons of State v. Loomis and Carpenter v. United States, the paper proposes a four-part constitutional floor transparency, reviewability, accountability and contestability, converging on an enforceable right to explanation that must be satisfied before any AI- generated output is permitted to influence a person’s liberty. Its central and, it hopes, its principal claim to originality is this: India does not yet need to resolve whether AI should be used in criminal justice; it needs, first and as a matter of constitutional obligation rather than policy preference, a framework for Explainable AI.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Article 14, Article 21, natural justice, facial recognition, predictive policing, algorithmic due process, right to explanation, Explainable AI, EU AI Act, criminal justice, privacy.
