JUSTICE REPORT:
- About the Report:
- The report analysed expenditure, vacancies, representation of women, human resources, infrastructure, workload, diversity across 18 large and medium-sized states with a population of over 1 crore and 7 small states.
- Findings:
- Overall Ranking:
- The overall ranking is a result of a state’s ranking across the four pillars of justice delivery system – Judiciary, Police, Prisons and Legal aid.
- Maharashtra was ranked topmost among 18 states for the second time in a row, followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Uttar Pradesh remains last.
- Amongst the smaller states, Goa remained at the top and Arunachal Pradesh at the bottom.
- Women Ratio in Police Force:
- Bihar leads the list of 25 states for employing most women in its police force which is 25.3%.
- It is the only state to have more than 20% women in the police force. However, women account for only 6.1% in the officer category.
- Tamil Nadu has the highest percentage of women police officers (24.8%), followed by Mizoram (20.1%).
- Women Ratio in Judiciary:
- Overall, only 29% judges in High Courts across the country are women, but no state except Sikkim has over 20% women judges.
- Four states – Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Meghalaya have no woman judges in high courts.
- Social Justice:
- Karnataka is the only state to meet its quotas for SC, ST and OBC in both officer cadre and constabulary.
- Chhattisgarh being the only other state that meets the diversity requirements for constabulary.
- Lack of Finances:
- In the last 25 years, only 1.5 crore people have received legal aid with the Centre spending Rs. 1.05 per capita in 2019-20.
- High Proportion of Undertrials:
- Two-thirds of all prisoners are undertrials awaiting a conviction.
- A person who is being held in custody awaiting trial for a crime.
- Two-thirds of all prisoners are undertrials awaiting a conviction.
- Causes of Poor Justice Delivery:
- Legal services institutions remain affected by a lack of infrastructure, uneven human resource distribution, poor utilization of central funds and an inability to effectively harness Lok Adalats to ease the burden on the judiciary
- Overall Ranking:
