Now Reading: Deepfakes could overwhelm criminal trials, warns senior advocate
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Deepfakes could overwhelm criminal trials, warns senior advocate
Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh has warned that deepfake technology could overwhelm India's criminal justice system, particularly in cases decided on circumstantial evidence. Speaking at an IAMAI discussion on AI in law…
Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh has warned that deepfake technology could overwhelm India's criminal justice system, particularly in cases decided on circumstantial evidence. Speaking at an IAMAI discussion on AI in law last week, Singh said generative AI can fabricate photorealistic video, voice recordings, and phone records that no forensic expert can quickly disprove.
Singh said a wily prosecutor could manufacture missing links in a circumstantial chain, such as showing a person at a crime scene they never visited, and tie an accused in knots. He noted that Indian policing already has a history of planting physical evidence, and that most accused lack the resources to obtain counter-forensics. He urged courts to establish safeguards immediately, warning that delaying regulation would lead to a 'runaway wreck'.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Indian criminal trials already rely heavily on circumstantial evidence, where the prosecution must prove an unbroken chain of logic. The Supreme Court has held, in cases like Sharad Birdhichand Sarda vs State of Maharashtra (1984), that every link in that chain must be complete before a conviction can rest on circumstance alone. Deepfake evidence could now supply fabricated links in that chain, making it far harder for judges to distinguish a genuine gap from a manufactured one. The financial asymmetry is also severe: India’s legal aid framework, governed by the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, is already overstretched, and most accused cannot afford the forensic examination needed to disprove synthetic evidence. The key test will be whether courts, led by the Supreme Court's evidence committee, establish procedural safeguards, such as mandatory forensic certification of digital exhibits, before the next general election cycle brings a surge of politically charged cases.
Source: medianama.com
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