JOIN USThese days when justice has lost some of its known and accepted meaning and stands for different things to different people and groups, a report on the state of delivery of justice in the country is not easy to compile. But there are certain norms and standards of justice which should be followed at any time and in any place, and the welfare of people in any society depends on maintaining those standards. The India Justice Report 2019 is an attempt to map the delivery of justice, taken in its normal sense, in different parts of the country, and the picture that emerges is not a happy one. The report shows that Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the top states in justice delivery among the bigger states, while Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh make up the bottom. Karnataka ranks sixth.
The report has used publicly available data to study the performance of states on four essential elements of justice — police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid. It has shown that even the best performing states have scored less than 60% across all categories. This is not surprising because it is well known that there are problems and deficiencies in the functioning of the police, judiciary and prisons, the three most important organs of the justice system. Tamil Nadu, which tops in policing, has a score of just 6.5 out of 10; the state of policing in other states is worse. Just 6% of the police force receive in-service training, only about 7% of the force are women, and there are serious issues relating to skills, motivation, working conditions, etc. Political interference is another problem. As for the judiciary and prisons, the courts are overburdened, the prisons overcrowded and badly administered. Justice takes a beating in both places. There is no efficient system of legal assistance in most parts of the country.
The report found that there are large vacancies across the justice system, and many states have not made much effort to fill them. Most states have failed to utilise allocated funds and just Re 1 is spent per capita per year on legal aid. The report has identified other major problems as an outdated legal framework, inadequate resources, poor oversight and a serious lack of quality. Reforms are urgently needed in all areas because the report says the system is broken and unable to deliver now. Failure of justice hits the weaker sections most. It is no surprise that India ranks 68th among 126 countries in the Rule of Law index 2019, behind Sri Lanka and Nepal.