LLM student sues Jindal Global Law School for failing him over AI-generated exam submission

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Monday sought OP Jindal Global University’s response on a student’s petition against the decision to declare his submission in an exam as AI-generated..Justice Jasgurpeet Singh Puri listed the matter for further hearing on November 14..The petition was moved by Kaustubh Shakkarwar, a lawyer who is currently pursuing Masters of Law (LLM) in Intellectual Property and Technology Laws at the Jindal Global Law School.Interestingly, the petitioner had previously worked as a law researcher with the Chief Justice of India and runs an AI platform related to litigation. He also practices in the fields of Intellectual Property law.Shakkarwar had appeared for the first term examinations on May 18 and submitted his answers for the end term examination for the subject ‘Law and Justice in the Globalizing World’ as part of his degree.The Unfair Means Committee later accused him of submitting “88% AI-generated” answers and on June 25 declared him ‘fail’ in the subject. The Controller of Examinations later upheld the decision..Shakkarwar then moved then Court contending that there is no explicit prohibition on AI-generated content.“The university is silent to state that use of AI would amount to ‘plagiarism’ and thus, the petitioner cannot be prosecuted for what is not explicitly prohibited,” the plea moved through advocate Prabhneer Swani said.However, he also stated that the submission was his own original creation and not created with the help of any AI.The university has not presented even an “iota of evidence” to substantiate the allegation, the plea added..Hence, he sought a declaration that no copyright subsists with an AI and that a human using AI is the author of the generated work.In this regard, it was argued that AI is only a tool and a means to an end and in order to establish plagiarism, the violation of copyright has to be established first.“Section 2(d)(vi) of the Copyright Act, 1957, makes it amply clear that, arguendo, if the Petitioner did even use AI, the copyright of the artistic work would lie with the petitioner, and thus the allegation of violation of copyright, fails,” Shakkarwar argued..Advocate Prabhneer Swani represented the petitioner..[Read Order]