“The dead cannot cry out for justice. It
is a duty of the living to do so for them.” -Lois
McMaster
India, being the largest democracy in the
world has an obligation to provide and equipped all its citizens with their
basic necessities. With the modernization of social needs of the people also
changes e.g. right to internet is the Fundamental Right declared by Kerala High
Court etc. To perform the obligation, statesmen are elected who form
Government. Government having three pillars namely Legislative, Executive and
Judiciary has to perform to attain the goal of welfare.
TATA Trust brought out a report on Indian Justice System ranking the pillars of Indian Justice System and pointings their current scenarios and lacunae on 7th November 2019.
About Indian Justice Report 2019
Indian Justice Report 2019 is an initiative taken by Tata Trust in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice,
Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Daksh, TISS-Prayas and
Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
This report is mainly focused on the judiciary and its instrumentalities.
According to this report, the Justice System has four pillars namely-
According to this report, the Justice System has four pillars namely-
1-
Police
2-
Prison
3-
Judiciary
4-
Legal Aid
Now, we would analyze each pillar of Judiciary separately by the ranking and scores of the various states got on the basis of different factors i.e. Budget, Diversity, Human Resource, Infrastructure etc.
Police
First and the inevitable pillar of the justice system is Police. To maintain law and order in the society is the main function
of the police. But it is quite visible and known about the pathetic condition of
Police to everyone. Tamil Nadu is on the first position followed by Uttarakhand and
Punjab. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are on the last and second last positions
respectively.
Key Findings of Report
- Punjab used 80% of allocated fund for the police while Rajasthan and Telangana used 3% and 7% respectively of the allocated fund.
- Share of women in police is highest in Tamil Nadu is 12.9% and least in Telangana which is 2%.
- Vacancies of constables in Uttar Pradesh are 53%.
- Population per civil police personnel is
- Highest- 1,663 in Bihar
- Lowest- 445 in Punjab.
- Population per police station -
- Highest- 2, 32,896 in West Bengal
- Lowest-30,445 in Telangana
- 47,557 police personnel are protecting 14,842 VIPs.
Police is sine quo non element of Indian Justice System. Condition of police
needs adequate reforms which help them to bring transparency and amicability
amongst people.
Prison
“The greater ignorance towards a country
is not ignoring what its politicians have to say, it is ignoring what the
inmates in its prisons have to say.” – Cris Jami
Prison is the home for the prisoner or lawbreakers to reform them and to make them realize what they have done wrong. Kerala
is on the top of ranking followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. Jharkhand is at
the last position.
Key Findings of Report
- West Bengal used 99% of the budget allocated for prison which is highest and Rajasthan lowest i.e. 77%.
- Officers Vacancy in Prison
- Highest- 70% in Jharkhand
- Lowest- 0.50% in Kerala
- Medical Staff vacancy in prison
- Highest- 85% in Jharkhand
- Lowest- 0% in Kerala
- Prison Occupancy
- Highest-190% in Chandigarh
- Lowest- 85% in Odisha
- Inmates per Jail Official
- Highest-343 in Jharkhand
- Lowest- 36 in Andhra Pradesh
Prison
is the home of wrongdoers. Even though, overcrowding of jails, low
budget spending etc are the lacunae of the government which need to take a
serious view on it.
Judiciary
Judiciary is one of the vital pillars of
Indian justice system which helps in strengthening the Democracy and Rule of
Law. Tamil Nadu is on the top followed by Punjab and Haryana. Jharkhand stands
last in this ranking.
Key Findings of Report
- Population per High Court Judge
- Highest-9, 63,181 in Kerala
- Lowest-35, 58,956 in Bihar
- High Court Judges vacancy
- Highest- 59.80% in Andhra Pradesh
- Lowest- 26.16% in Kerala
- Population per
Subordinate court Judge
- Highest- 1, 13,080 in Uttar Pradesh
- Lowest-46,056 in Uttarakhand
- Sub Ordinate Court Judges
vacancy
- Highest- 44% in Bihar
- Lowest- 4% in Maharashtra
- Construction of 2,730 court halls within the financial year 2018–19.
· If the full complement of
sanctioned judge strength was appointed there would be a shortfall of 4,071
court halls.
· Seven states did not have
a single woman judge in the High Court. Uttrakhand and Chhattisgarh High Courts
are an example of it.
Many new mechanisms are functioning such
as Arbitration, Meditation, Lok Adalats etc in India to lower the burden of
Judiciary but above mentions Factors clearly states why pendency is increasing
day by day.
Legal Aid
Article
39A of the Indian Constitution grants free legal aid service to the economic
weaker section of the society to provide less expensive justice to all.
National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) is a body established under the authority of the Legal Services
Authorities Act 1987 to furnish legal aid to each and every
citizen of India. Kerala bagged the first position followed by Haryana and Punjab.
Uttar Pradesh is at the last.
Key Findings of Report
- NALSA Fund utilized by state
- Highest- 98% in Rajasthan
- Lowest- 50% in Bihar
- Villages per Legal
Service Clinic
- Highest- 1603 in Uttar Pradesh
- Lowest- 6 in Rajasthan
- A total of 14,161 clinics existed across around 597,000 villages. On average, at these figures, one legal services clinic serves 42 villages.
Points of Concern
1- Women Representation
On an average woman representation in the Indian justice system is of only 7%. Still, the participation of women is increasing but the same pace will take a very long time for an appropriate representation of women in the justice system. For example, If the same growth rate of women
representation takes place, Madhya Pradesh will take 294 years to make this representation up to 33%.
State
|
Years
to make 33% representation
|
Chhattisgarh
|
225
|
Karnataka
|
120
|
Odisha
|
111
|
Punjab
|
100
|
2- Police Vacancies
Police Vacancies is one of the lacunae
where every state falls. Increasing Sanctioned Strength and filling up the
vacancies are required.
State
|
Population
per police Officer
|
Bihar
|
1663
|
West
Bengal
|
1209
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
1157
|
3- Jail Occupancy
Overcrowding of jails should also be
reformed. Inmates didn’t get proper and sufficient place to live.
State
|
Jail
Occupancy
|
Chhattisgarh
|
190%
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
164%
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
136%
|
Hence
these are some of the issues which should be solved and reformed expeditiously.
The data on the police, prisons, legal aid and the judiciary that the India Justice report has brought together provides strong evidence that the whole system
requires urgent repair. Indian Justice Report 2019 is an endeavour of Tata trust to bring out the shortcomings of the Indian Justice System and to abridges the gap
between citizens and its legal rights.
Read the full report here, and the state-wise factsheets here — National factsheet, Bihar, Delhi (English), Delhi (Hindi), Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Read the press release here and the backgrounders on the pillars: police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid; and themes: human resources, diversity and trends.
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