Tamil Nadu judiciary top among large and mid-sized states; Sikkim tops small states: India Justice Report 2022

For the third time in a row, the Tamil Nadu judiciary retained its top position among large and mid-sized states, while Sikkim retained its position among small states, according to the India Justice Report 2022. .The third edition of the report launched on April 4 ranked the judiciaries of 18 large and mid-sized states with a population above 10 million and 7 small-sized states with a population of up to 10 million. The report was prepared by representatives from a number of civil society organisations including Centre for Social Justice, DAKSH, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, TISS-Prayas and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy..According to the report, Karnataka improved the most, ascending from twelfth to the second rank. Improvements in Karnataka included reducing High Court judge vacancies from 50 per cent to 21 per cent, increasing the number of women judges in subordinate courts and improving per capita spend.Rajasthan, on the other hand, fell by seven ranks from the tenth to seventeenth place, owing to persisting judge vacancies at the High Court and district court levels, compounded by a court hall shortage.Punjab slipped one place from second to third rank because of an increase in High Court staff vacancies..Among the small states, Tripura climbed from sixth to second as a result of the State’s efforts to fill up judge vacancies in district courts and staff vacancies in High Courts. The State also saw a rise in the number of women judges in district courts, and an increasing High Court case clearance rate.Meghalaya also improved its rank from seventh to fifth by improving its per capita spend, filling up judge vacancies, and increasing the number of women in district courts.However, Himachal Pradesh was pushed from second to sixth place due to increased judge and staff vacancies in the High Court along with decreased clearance rates and a shortage of court halls.Goa slipped from fourth to seventh place owing to similar reasons..Detailed below are some metrics from the report..Diversity.At the district-court level, no state or union territory fully met all its Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) quotas.9 states and union territories have met their OBC quotas. At 50 per cent, Tamil Nadu has the second highest percentage of reservation in this category, fulfilling its quota completely. 8 states and union territories have less than 10 per cent ST judges and 3 have no reservations for STs.The report reveals that only 13 per cent of High Court judges and 35 per cent of subordinate court judges are women. The five states of Bihar, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Meghalaya have no women judges in their High Courts..Infrastructure.The report states that ideally, for each judge, there must be a court hall. In August 2022, there were 21,014 court halls for the 24,631 judges’ posts sanctioned at the time, reflecting a shortfall of 14.7 per cent.If every state appointed each of its sanctioned judges, only 4 states and 4 union territories would have enough court halls. In 11 states and union territories, there would be a shortfall of more than 25 per cent. In Arunachal Pradesh (21 per cent to 37 per cent), Haryana (16 per cent to 28 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (2 per cent to 9 per cent), the shortages rose mainly due to an increase in the number of sanctioned judges. At 46.5 per cent, Meghalaya had the highest shortfall.Nationally, the number of court halls appears sufficient for the number of actual judges. However, space will become a problem if all the sanctioned posts are filled. In Delhi, West Bengal and Uttarakhand, there were no court halls for the 86, 82, and 35 serving judges respectively.As per the report, the population per subordinate court judge was 71,224 persons and the population per High Court judge was 17,65,760..Pendency.As of December 2022, a total of 4.9 crore cases remained pending across High Courts and district courts in the country. As many as 1.9 lakh cases have been pending for over 30 years and 56 lakh cases for more than 10 years. On average, 49 per cent and 29 per cent of these cases are pending for more than 5 years in the High Courts and the lower courts respectively. In addition, there are around 70,000 cases pending before the Supreme Court..At the High Court level, Uttar Pradesh has the highest average pendency, with cases remaining pending for an average of 11.34 years. The lowest average High Court pendency is in Tripura at 1 year, Sikkim at 1.9 years, and Meghalaya at 2.1 years. Among the large and mid-sized states, Kerala and Punjab are the only states where courts at both levels could achieve case clearance rates of 100 per cent and more..Budgets .The lion’s share of the judiciary's financial obligation rests with the states, while the Central government contributes just about 10 per cent to state judiciary budgets. Except for two union territories - Delhi and Chandigarh - no state or union territory spends more than 1 per cent of its total annual expenditure on the judiciary..In 2022, the overall national spend on judiciary averages ₹146 in per capita terms, an increase of ₹42 since 2015-16. Sikkim, which already had a high per capita spend last year of ₹496, increased it further by ₹139 to ₹635. This is more than eight times what West Bengal spends, at ₹75..As per the national rankings which evaluate how a state fared in its cluster across the 4 pillars of justice, Karnataka topped the justice delivery in IndiaThe four pillars included police, prisons, judiciary, and legal aid. .Vacancy, apart from the judiciary, was an issue across the other three pillars.In the police, women are only about 11.75 per cent despite their numbers doubling in the last decade. About 29 per cent of the officer positions are vacant. The police to population ratio is 152.8 per lakh. The international standard is 222.Prisons are over-occupied at over 130 per cent. More than two-thirds of the prisoners (77.1 per cent) are awaiting the completion of investigation or trial..Most states have not fully utilised funds given to them by the Centre. Their own increase in spending on the police, prisons, and judiciary has not kept pace with overall increase in state expenditure.India’s per capita spend on free Legal Aid, which 80 per cent of the population is eligible for, is a meagre ₹3.87 per annum..Read the full report here..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.