Can AI Reform Justice? A Juridical Study on the Use of Artificial Intelligence to Overcome Procedural Impediments in Rape Trials

Abstract

The paper critically reviews how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to restructure the procedure of rape trials in India. Although this has been changed through various legislative amendments, such as Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, the rape adjudication process continues to be marred by institutional insensitivity, evidence gaps, and systemic delays that tend to retraumatize the victims. This paper challenges the reproduction of gendered and structural injustice by the very process of legal procedure using a triangulated theoretical approach that incorporates feminist jurisprudence, procedural justice theory, and victimology. Based on the doctrinal analysis, real-life cases of India (including Mathura, Unnao, Hathras), and comparative models in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa, the research examines globally experimented survivor-sensitive procedural mechanisms. The paper subsequently reviews the extent to which AI can be used as a supplementary tool to increase the transparency and accountability of the procedure, including case triaging and delay monitoring, as well as the NLP analysis of courtroom discourse. Nevertheless, it warns against techno-solutionism by discussing such major risks as algorithmic bias, opaqueness, and survivor consent violations. The paper ends with the suggestion of a three-level reform agenda: procedural mandates, which can be enforced, ethically regulated AI integration, and the institutional design that is survivor-centered (in the vein of Thuthuzela Care Centres). Finally, this study claims that AI can be utilized as a tool to constitutional and trauma-informed justice, but not as an alternative to it. The results are part of the new discussions on ethics of legal-technology, gender-sensitive judicial adjudication, and the future of criminal justice in postcolonial democracies.