New Delhi, March 31 A Delhi court has imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on an applicant for filing a complaint with grammatical errors and meaningless words, stating that the application was an example of reliance on "technical intervention" or AI-driven drafting tools without human oversight.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Neha Mittal, who was hearing a complaint by a woman seeking directions to the Delhi Police to register an FIR, also emphasized that the complaint was an example of reliance on "technical intervention" or AI-driven drafting tools without human input.
In an order dated March 30, while dismissing the complaint on the grounds of being "non-maintainable" and for being outside the court's jurisdiction, the ACJM said, "Before parting with this order, this court deems it appropriate to highlight the quality of the drafting that has been presented before it."
She stated that the application was full of "grammatical mistakes," besides "the inclusion of some random, meaningless words," resulting in a waste of judicial time as efforts were made to understand such words, but to no avail.
To illustrate the absurdity, the court's order quoted specific excerpts: "In paragraph no. 3 of the complaint annexed with the application... a few lines read as 'that is why the me could not take legal action against the OCT accused because the me is Lady. a LATTES simple Framner... The mean Lebaut was in depression... The complaint EO SHO PS Mehrauli, New Delhi BHE BE Action was taken till me.'"
Hinting that the petition was possibly drafted using artificial intelligence, the magistrate said, "These lines certainly do not make any sense and fail to convey anything other than the fact that the drafting may have involved more technical intervention and less human input."
The magistrate stated that the country's constitutional courts had deprecated the practice of filing such petitions.
"Despite nipping such complaints in the bud, litigants filing these frivolous complaints are definitely successful in wasting judicial time, if not more."
"In such situations, courts cannot be left powerless. Hence, in order to meet the ends of justice, this court deems it fit to impose a cost on the complainant," she said.
The magistrate directed the complainant to deposit a cost of Rs 20,000 with the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA).