India: the Supreme Court bar opposes mandatory AI disclosure

Lawyers for the Indian SC reject the MeitY draft's AI disclosure mandate - first pro/regulator split on the Indian AI Act.

The fact

The SCAORA (Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, body of lawyers authorized to plead directly before the Supreme Court of India) formally opposes the AI usage disclosure mandate provided in the draft AI regulations of the MeitY (Medianama, 20/07/2026). It qualifies the mandate as unenforceable and points out four concrete risks: hallucinations of LLMs, opacity of deployed systems, weakness of accountability mechanisms, and specific risks on judicial data.

Our analysis

First major visible fracture in the consultation of the draft. The MeitY considered disclosure as a soft-power pillar of the Indian regime - a democratic signal against the European AI Act deemed too hard-law. The opposition of the SCAORA weakens this pillar, all the more so as the point on judicial data (confidentiality, chain of custody in a trial) is difficult to politically dismiss. To be expected: other bodies (doctors, journalists) will probably follow. The shift could go towards a sectoral regime (reinforced obligation in the public sector, lightened in liberal professions), which will complicate the application (fil india-ai-sovereignty).

To watch

• Official position of the MeitY within 15 days.
• Other bodies (Indian Medical Association, Editors Guild).
• Impact on the schedule of the final draft (Q4 2026 expected).