Telangana ranks third for justice delivery: Report

Hyderabad: Telangana ranked third among 18 large states, having a population of at least a crore, in delivering justice through police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid, the India Justice Report (IJR) 2022 stated.

Its fellow Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh also fared well, ranking fifth, while its southern counterpart of Karnataka topped the rankings. Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, ranked second.

While Telangana retained the third position since the previous report in 2020, Andhra Pradesh moved up seven places, from rank 12 in 2020.

The report appreciated southern states for the effective delivery of justice, as they took four of the top five spots — with Gujarat ranking fourth — and Kerala not far behind, ranking sixth.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand were the five worst-performing states, as per the report, which also pointed out lacunae in Punjab and Goa.

The IJR is an initiative of the Tata Trusts that was launched in 2019, with the 2022 report marking its third edition. The report is prepared in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and How India Lives, which is the data partner.

The methodology for the report included 24-month quantitative research and tracking of performances.

A point highlighted by the report was increasing legal aid in state Budgets. As of 2021-22, all states and UTs contributed over 60 per cent to their legal aid budgets, but nationally, it is less than '4 per capita, it said, compared to per capita spending of '1,151 on police and '146 on the judiciary. It also stated that a ‘meagre amount of less than '2’ was being spent on police training.

On the whole, the report concluded that the justice system remains affected due to low budgets. Except for two UTs — Delhi and Chandigarh — no state/UT spends over one per cent of total income on the judiciary, it stated.

The report stated that for 1.4 billion people, India has about 20,076 judges, with about 22 per cent of sanctioned posts vacant. Vacancy among High Court judges is at 30 per cent.

As of December 2022, India had 19 judges per 10 lakh population, with a backlog of 4.8 crore cases.

While the Law Commission had desired, as early as 1987, to have at least 50 judges per 10 lakh by 1997, there is only one High Court for 17.65 lakh and one subordinate court judge for 71,224 people.