Smart Legal Advisor: An AI-Powered System for Indian Penal Code Interpretation

Abstract Legal information in India is often complex and inaccessible to the general public due to technical language and limited legal awareness. This paper presents Legal Advisor Pro, an AI-powered legal assistance system designed to simplify and democratize access to provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC 1860) and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS 2023). The system leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques, including semantic search and text classification, to interpret user queries expressed in natural language and map them to relevant legal sections, offenses, and procedural guidance. Developed using Python and deployed through a Streamlit-based web interface, the application ensures usability, scalability, and minimal hardware requirements. The system supports multilingual input, enabling wider adoption across diverse user groups. Emphasis is placed on ethical compliance by providing informational assistance without offering definitive legal advice. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed system improves legal information retrieval accuracy and user understanding when compared to traditional keyword-based search methods. Legal Advisor Pro highlights the potential of AI-driven LegalTech solutions in bridging the gap between complex legal frameworks and common citizens. Keywords: - Artificial Intelligence; LegalTech; Natural Language Processing (NLP); Indian Penal Code (IPC); Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS); Semantic Search; Machine Learning; AI Legal Assistant; Legal Information Retrieval