<p>It is not a major surprise that the India Justice Report (IJR), 2022, prepared by a number of civil society organisations and released last week, finds the country short on delivery of justice. The latest report is its third edition, and the earlier reports of 2019 and 2020 had shown that there was much more to be done in the matter of individual and social access to justice.</p>.<p>The report has ranked large and mid-sized states, with populations of one crore, and also smaller states, according to their performance in the four areas vital for justice delivery--police, judiciary, prison and legal aid.</p>.<p>Factors like budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity were taken into consideration for evaluation. This is the first of its kind effort to track the work of state governments in the delivery of justice, which depends on many processes and institutions and suffers from shortcomings related to policy and performance. </p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/comment/satyameva-jayate-1207650.html" target="_blank">Satyameva Jayate?</a></strong></p>.<p>Karnataka topped the large and mid-sized states with an overall score of 6.38 out of 10, followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana, both scoring 6.11 respectively. Five of the top six places are taken up by states from southern India. UP remains at the bottom, as it was in two earlier reports.</p>.<p>The rankings show that most states have made efforts to improve their positions. Karnataka jumped 13 places since 2020 to reach the top in 2022. It reduced High Court judge vacancies from 50 to 21%, increased the number of women judges in subordinate courts, and improved per capita expenditure. Maharashtra, the top scorer in 2020, slipped from its position in 2022. Among small states, Sikkim ranked first and was followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. </p>.<p>One important takeaway from the report is that the number of cases pending per judge is increasing while there is a severe shortage of judges and infrastructure. Another is that over 77% of the people in overcrowded prisons are under-trial prisoners. The police and prison departments are badly understaffed, and 25% of police stations have no CCTV cameras. Budgets are low.</p>.<p>Only Delhi and Chandigarh allocated 1% of their annual expenditure to the judiciary. The per capita spend on free legal aid, for which 80 per cent of the population is eligible, was a meagre Rs 3.87 a year. </p>.<p>This is particularly important because, as U U Lalit, former Chief Justice of India, has said in his foreword to the report, about 70% of litigants in criminal cases are below the poverty line.</p>.<p>The people who need justice most are the poorest, and they are most likely to be denied it.</p>
<p>It is not a major surprise that the India Justice Report (IJR), 2022, prepared by a number of civil society organisations and released last week, finds the country short on delivery of justice. The latest report is its third edition, and the earlier reports of 2019 and 2020 had shown that there was much more to be done in the matter of individual and social access to justice.</p>.<p>The report has ranked large and mid-sized states, with populations of one crore, and also smaller states, according to their performance in the four areas vital for justice delivery--police, judiciary, prison and legal aid.</p>.<p>Factors like budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity were taken into consideration for evaluation. This is the first of its kind effort to track the work of state governments in the delivery of justice, which depends on many processes and institutions and suffers from shortcomings related to policy and performance. </p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/comment/satyameva-jayate-1207650.html" target="_blank">Satyameva Jayate?</a></strong></p>.<p>Karnataka topped the large and mid-sized states with an overall score of 6.38 out of 10, followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana, both scoring 6.11 respectively. Five of the top six places are taken up by states from southern India. UP remains at the bottom, as it was in two earlier reports.</p>.<p>The rankings show that most states have made efforts to improve their positions. Karnataka jumped 13 places since 2020 to reach the top in 2022. It reduced High Court judge vacancies from 50 to 21%, increased the number of women judges in subordinate courts, and improved per capita expenditure. Maharashtra, the top scorer in 2020, slipped from its position in 2022. Among small states, Sikkim ranked first and was followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. </p>.<p>One important takeaway from the report is that the number of cases pending per judge is increasing while there is a severe shortage of judges and infrastructure. Another is that over 77% of the people in overcrowded prisons are under-trial prisoners. The police and prison departments are badly understaffed, and 25% of police stations have no CCTV cameras. Budgets are low.</p>.<p>Only Delhi and Chandigarh allocated 1% of their annual expenditure to the judiciary. The per capita spend on free legal aid, for which 80 per cent of the population is eligible, was a meagre Rs 3.87 a year. </p>.<p>This is particularly important because, as U U Lalit, former Chief Justice of India, has said in his foreword to the report, about 70% of litigants in criminal cases are below the poverty line.</p>.<p>The people who need justice most are the poorest, and they are most likely to be denied it.</p>
