The 2022 India Justice Report (IJR) ranks Karnataka at the top of the 18 Large and Mid-sized states, followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. The list of seven Small States was topped by Sikkim, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura.
The India Justice Report (IJR) 2022 is a 24-month quantitative research that tracks the performance of states in capacitating their Justice delivery structures to effectively deliver mandated services. It brings together data on the four pillars of Justice delivery – Police, Judiciary, Prisons, and Legal Aid – and analyses each pillar through budgets, human resources, workload, diversity, infrastructure, and trends. It also assesses the capacity of the 25 State Human Rights Commissions. States are increasing budget allocation for legal aid, with all states/UTs contributing more than 60%. Women in subordinate judiciary have crossed 33%, per capita police spending has increased to Rs 1151, and jails with video conferencing have increased to 84%.
Prison occupancy is high, with over 2/3rd inmates yet to be convicted, and women only 11.75% of the police force. Legal aid clinics have decreased from 23,022 to 12,976. Ms. Maja Daruwala, Chief Editor, India Justice Report 2022 points out, “For this to happen more resources need to be ploughed into it, much more capacity built and much more attention paid to curing long standing deficiencies.”
