Source: Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research

Artificial intelligence has shifted from the periphery to the centre of public administration, reshaping what constitutional government means in practice. Executive agencies now use automated systems to allocate welfare benefits, direct policing, verify identity, moderate public discourse and assist judicial reasoning, and legislatures and courts are attempting to develop an adequate vocabulary to describe this change in public power. The piece argues that the “algorithmic State” does not end constitutional constraint but transforms it into a new and unsettled register, tracing the constitutional principles most tested by algorithmic governance: separation of powers, the rule of law, due process, equality and privacy. The discussion follows concrete policy areas including automated welfare administration, predictive policing, facial recognition, and AI within judicial processes.

The authors situate Indian jurisprudence — including the recognition of privacy as a fundamental right and the judiciary’s recent encounters with AI-generated error — within an international constitutional conversation that draws on the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, IndiaAI Mission and AI Governance Guidelines, 2025. The article concludes that the future of democratic governance depends on embedding legality, transparency, accountability and human dignity into the design and oversight of algorithmic administration, emphasizing regulatory and judicial engagement to preserve constitutional values in algorithmic decision-making.