Karnataka ranks 6th in delivering Justice: Justice Report 2019

Karnataka's justice delivery system ranks sixth in overall justice delivery among 18 large and mid-sized states in India that house more than three crore population. In the four pillars of delivering justice, the state ranked sixth in terms of police, third in prisons, 16th in judiciary and 7th in legal aid. This is Karnataka's justice delivery system in a nutshell.

The India Justice Report 2019 sponsored by Tata Trusts that was released in November last year was discussed at length by an eminent panel of experts from all four pillars of the justice system here on Friday led by Former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah.

In the Karnataka police force, one in every five constable posts has remained vacant. Nationally 7.2% of the police force are women but in Karnataka, it is 5.4%. The national average of women police officers is 5.5% but in the state 4%. Ajai Kumar Singh, Former DG Police, Karnataka, said that in his nearly 37 years of service he had not seen adequate utilisation of women officers in proper roles.

"Women shouldn't just be relegated to the front office or be posted behind computers. They should be in roles where there is public interaction," Singh said.

While the national average for medical staff vacancy in prisons stands at 38.5%, in Karnataka, it is a staggering 56%. S T Ramesh, Former DG Prisons, Karnataka, said, "For 4,000 odd inmates at our Central Prison Parappana Agrahara there is only one psychiatrist and three doctors. Recently, I heard posts for 18 social workers and two psychiatrists were sanctioned. I think counselling is very important for anybody who enters prison. There is a dire need for counsellors in our prisons."

One in two sanctioned posts of Karnataka High Court judges is lying vacant. This is higher than the national average vacancy of 42%. Cases in the high court remain pending for an average of four years.

Justice M N Venkatachaliah made an impassionate plea for reforming judicial processes and procedures and appointing judges not in proportion to the population but in proportion to the number of cases like in the US and other countries. "We have 22,764 courts in India. Each court lists 60 cases. Two hundred and fifty people go back home from courts every day in hope that their grievances will be redressed. At 290 working days multiplied by Rs 250 per head per day, the notional loss is Rs 2 lakh crore a year which is a colossal loss!" he exclaimed.