Telangana High Court Pulls Up Jangaon Collector Over Use of AI to Decide Land Disputes

The Telangana High Court has raised concerns over the growing tendency of district administrations to use artificial intelligence (AI) and automated platforms to pass orders on grievance petitions, allegedly without examining whether or not the underlying problems had been resolved.

Taking serious exception to the Jangaon collector's alleged reliance on AI-generated material to pass orders in a revenue dispute without verifying the facts, the court observed that negligence in matters concerning rights over the properties and such matters could have severe consequences for ordinary citizens and farmers.

Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar made the remarks hearing a writ petition filed by Medipalli Komuraiah of Peddamdur in Devaruppula mandal of Jangaon district, questioning how a collector could act negligently in matters concerning rights over property, without hearing the necessary parties and only by relying on automation tools. The court suspended the collector’s September 8 order in the petitioner's dispute and sought an explanation from Advocate-General A. Sudarshan Reddy on the action proposed against officials for such lapses. The court also directed the Advocate-General to apprise it of the steps taken in the matter.

According to petitioner`s counsel M. Madhava Reddy, the collector had passed an order on the grievance submitted by the opposite parties in a revenue related issue without hearing the contention of Komuraiah, which caused serious hardship to him. Counsel also brought to the notice of the court that the orders were issue mechanically by using the AI tools, without going into the facts and nor applying the mind.

Assistant government counsel Haritha, appearing for the revenue department, stated that the issue had come to the notice of government counsel Katram Muralidhar Reddy who handles revenue matters. He had written to the Advocate-General's office seeking legal advice on the course of action to be adopted.

Taking serious exception to the manner in which the matter was dealt with, Justice Shravan Kumar directed Advocate-General Sudarshan Reddy to explain the action taken in the matter. The court issued notices to the principal secretary, revenue, the Jangaon collector, the Devaruppula tahsildar and the private parties, calling for their explanations and adjourned the matter to November 18.

The proceedings have brought into focus concerns over the increasing dependence of district administrations on AI-assisted systems and workflow automation platforms for handling public grievances.

There are allegations that, instead of going into case-wise facts and examining the records, some staff members were photographing grievance applications and feeding them into AI tools to generate responses or draft orders. Such material was allegedly being processed without verifying the underlying facts, examining relevant documents or ascertaining the actual circumstances of the dispute. There were also concerns that the officials responsible for scrutiny were concentrating more on closing complaints within the prescribed timelines than on providing genuine solutions to the grievances.

In the ordinary course of administration, collectors and senior authorities sign off on the proceedings prepared by their staff, without independently scrutinising them before approval. The Jangaon case has brought this concern into sharp focus, with the High Court questioning the collector's alleged failure to apply his mind to the actual facts of the dispute.