According to Adv Uday Umesh Lalit, Former Chief Justice of India while providing his foreword to the India Justice Report (IJR), has observed:
“One of the attributes of the report is that it consciously abjures making judgments about performance or even about why chronic frailties and easy-to-repair elements remain unaddressed over decades. It lets the time series data—such as the slow pace of inclusion of women and traditionally discriminated segments of society to find a place within the system—speak for itself. But the truth of its finding compels early measures to repair.”
According to the Essay on Methodology, the IJR (2022) continues to assess and rank each state’s progress in capacitating its major justice delivery mechanisms—the judiciary, police, prisons and legal aid—to deliver justice to all.
In the opinion of Maja Daruwala, the Editor and Convenor, India Justice Report:
Introduction
In terms of Rankings
“Pulling out from this extraordinary time, several states have seen dramatic changes in rank. Some for the better, others for the worse. Karnataka, 14th in 2020, jumped thirteen spots to the top…Rajasthan five places to 15th and Goa dropped from 3rd to last place amongst small states.”
“Nevertheless, decades of continuing disrepair is intensifying the justice delivery system’s incapability to deliver timely justice—with the heaviest toll falling on the justice user.”
Chapter 1
Police: Incapacity, a
continuing challenge
Population per Police Station: Police station locations are dictated by population, crime profile, topography, and many other considerations including finance and human resource availability.
Between 2012 and 2022, the number of police stations increased by 23 per cent.
Nationwide, 17,535 police stations serve a population of 1.37 billion and an area of 3,287,469 sq km. This averages roughly one police station for 78,344 people and coverage of 187 sq km.
Only six states/UTs—Goa (140), Tamil Nadu (137), Bihar (125), Kerala (82), Puducherry (21) and Lakshadweep (1)—meet the National Police Commission’s 1981 recommended area coverage of 150 sq km for a rural police station.
Chapter 2
Prisons: Dire straits
to breaking point
Assessing the capacity of prison administrations against various benchmarks, the IJR adds five new parameters and finds considerable movement in rankings. Critical levels of overcrowding, stagnant or increasing vacancies, and worsening budget utilisations have contributed to the drop in rankings.
Amongst the seven small states, Goa continued its decline from first in 2019, fourth in 2020, to now seventh place. Mizoram, however, moved from seventh to third and Arunachal Pradesh from third to first position in 2019 and 2020.
Undertrial population
Only 22 per cent of the prison population are convicts while 77 per cent are ‘undertrials’ or people awaiting the completion of investigation or trial. The number of undertrials is the highest it’s been since 2010, having nearly doubled from 2.4 lahk in 2010 to 4.3 lakh in 2021: an increase of 78 per cent.
Among the 18 large and mid-sized states, Punjab recorded the highest increase, at 3.75 percentage points, while among the seven small states, Goa showed the highest increase of 5.23 percentage points.
Medical Staff
Prison health personnel are categorised as medical officers, meaning qualified doctors, as well as medical staff which includes lab technicians, pharmacists and compounders. The Model Prison Manual, 2016 requires one doctor for every 300 prisoners. Over the years, the chronic unaddressed shortage of qualified doctors has only become more acute.
The shortage of medical staff other than doctors is even more acute. With only 2,080 actual medical staff against 3,497 sanctioned nationally, vacancies increased to 40.5 per cent in 2021 from 32.7 per cent in 2020. Fifteen states/UTs show more than 40 per cent vacancies, with Goa (84.6 per cent).
Spend per Inmate
Of the 7,619.2 crore budget allocated for prisons in 2021–22, states could utilise 6,727.3 crore or 88 per cent.
The IJR (2022) defines ‘spend per inmate’ as the expenditure made per inmate on meeting the expenses of food, clothing, medical needs, vocational training, education and welfare activities.
Of this, 31 per cent or 2,106.86 crore was spent on food, clothing, medical needs, vocational training, education and other welfare activities, nationally.
Nationally, 16 states/UTs48 spent less than Rs 35,000 on inmates annually or less than Rs 100 per day.
Goa in its spend per inmate in terms of percentage points between 2018–22, decreased their average spend per inmate by -20.6 pp.
Chapter 3
Judiciary: Judging
the numbers
Goa slipped from fourth to seventh place due to an increase in judge vacancies at both the high court and district court level, a decrease in the share of women judges and a decrease in case of clearance rate at the high court level.
Chapter 4:
Legal Aid: Justice for
all, a distant dream
According to the UN Principles and Guidelines for Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, 2012, it is widely acknowledged that free legal aid is an essential element of a functioning criminal justice system based on the rule of law.
Among small states, Sikkim rose from third in 2020 to first in 2022 while Goa came in second after being in the top spot in 2019 and 2020.
The issue of appropriate numbers is also reflected in the paralegal volunteer scheme. NALSA suggests 50 active paralegals in each District Legal Services Authority. However, in 2022 states like Goa (59/100), Himachal Pradesh (368/550), Rajasthan (1,449/1,800) and Uttar Pradesh (2,863/3,550) appointed fewer than the required numbers.
Curiously, the overall utilisation of NALSA funds reduced in 2021–22, and of the Rs 183 crore allotted to states, Rs 138 crore remained unutilized. Goa with 49 per cent utilised the least.
Pre-litigation cases taken up by Lok Adalats: Among the small states, Mizoram (88 per cent) cleared the most pre-litigation cases while Goa (5 per cent) cleared the least.
