Adalat AI, a legal technology startup co-founded by Indian entrepreneurs, aims to address India’s significant judicial backlog using innovative artificial intelligence solutions.
In the complex landscape of India’s judicial system, where over 50 million cases languish in a protracted queue, a new digital ally is emerging from the 2026 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.
Adalat AI, a legal technology venture co-founded by Indian scholars Utkarsh Saxena and Arghya Bhattacharya, has been recognized as one of the finalists in this prestigious contest, positioning it among the most promising startups within Harvard’s global ecosystem.
The initiative is driven by Saxena and Bhattacharya’s commitment to tackling one of the Global South’s most persistent social challenges: the “glacial pace” of the courts. For Saxena, this mission is deeply personal. As a former law clerk at the Supreme Court of India and an alumnus of both Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, he has witnessed firsthand how manual clerical bottlenecks contribute to the plight of nearly 80% of India’s prison population, who remain trapped as “undertrials” without a conviction.
Teaming up with Bhattacharya, a distinguished AI researcher and alumnus of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, the duo has developed a justice tech stack specifically designed for the Indian context. Bhattacharya, who was recently named to the Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” list, brings invaluable technical expertise in multilingual and low-resource language models.
“Our tool isn’t just about transcription; it’s about understanding the complex lexicon of legal jargon and the diverse accents that change every 100 kilometers in India,” Bhattacharya explained during recent research discussions.
The centerpiece of their platform is a specialized voice-to-text software that enables judges and stenographers to capture testimonies in real time. Unlike generic AI solutions, Adalat AI’s models are rooted in legal citations and can instantly translate witness statements from regional languages into English.
The impact of this technology is already evident. In trials conducted across 4,000 courtrooms in nine Indian states, the system has reportedly doubled judicial productivity. Notably, in Kerala, it has become the first judiciary-mandated AI tool in the world.
As a finalist in the President’s Innovation Challenge, Adalat AI is competing for a share of $500,000 in prize money. However, the founders view this recognition as a stepping stone toward a broader vision.
They aspire to export this “made in India” solution to other former British colonies, such as Ghana and Kenya, which face similar challenges with paper-heavy legal structures.
The winners of the challenge will be announced at a global ceremony on May 6, marking a potential turning point for a venture that seeks to ensure that, for millions, justice delayed is no longer justice denied.
According to American Bazaar, Adalat AI represents a significant advancement in the intersection of technology and law, aiming to modernize a system that has long been burdened by inefficiencies.