Vacancy among HC judges at 30 per cent: India Justice Report

New Delhi [India], April 4 (ANI): As of December 2022, India had 19 judges per million population when calculated against the sanctioned strength, and a backlog of 4.8 crore cases, the 2022 India Justice Report (IJR), informed on Tuesday.

The India Justice Report (IJR), which claimed to be India’s only ranking of states on delivery of Justice in the country, was initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019, and this is the third edition.

Its Partners include the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and How India Lives, IJR’s data partner.

The report also said that there are encouraging improvements, but persistent lacunae as it highlighted the issue including vacancies among others.

IJR 2022, as in the first two, highlighted persistent lacunae when aggregated for an all-India picture.

“Vacancy is an issue across the Police, Prison staff, Legal Aid, and the Judiciary. For 1.4 billion people, India has about 20,076 judges with about 22 per cent sanctioned posts vacant.,” it stated.

IJR further stated that vacancy among High Court judges is at 30 per cent.

“As of December 2022, India had 19 judges per million population when calculated against the sanctioned strength, and a backlog of 4.8 crore cases. The Law Commission had desired, as early as 1987, it should be 50 judges per million in a decade’s time from then,” it added.

The report said that there are only 11.75 per cent of women in the police, despite their numbers doubling in the last decade.

About 29 per cent of the officer positions are vacant. The ratio of police to population is 152.8 per lakh, while 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 the investigation or trial, IJR said.

It further added that 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 the overall increase in state expenditure.

“The justice system as a whole remains affected by low budgets. Except for two union territories, Delhi and Chandigarh, no state spends more than 1 per cent of its total annual expenditure on the judiciary,” IJR said.

India’s per capita spending on free Legal Aid –which 80 per cent of the population is eligible for – is a meagre Rs 3.87 per annum, it added.

The report also mentioned workload in the judiciary, stating that in 28 states and Union Territories, one in every four High Court cases is pending for more than five years. In District Courts of 11 states/Union Territories, one in every four cases is pending for more than five years.

The IJR report stated, “Population per subordinate court judge: 71,224 persons. Population per high court judge: 17,65,760 persons. Population per civil police is 831 persons”

As per IJR 2022, the vacancies in the system nationally are “In police, 22 per cent for constable, and 29 per cent for officers. In Prison, 28 per cent of officers, 26 per cent of cadre staff, 36 per cent of correctional staff, 41 per cent of medical staff and 48 per cent of medical officers. In Judiciary, 30 per cent HC judges, 22 per cent subordinate court judges and 26 per cent in HC staff”.

The report also said that there 12 per cent vacancy for DLSA Secretary.

The IJR 2022 further stated the reduction in vacancies in some states, “Telangana, a reduction from 40 per cent to 26 per cent in the constabulary. In Madhya Pradesh, from 49 per cent to 21 per cent in officers and in Bihar, from 66 per cent to 26 per cent in officers”

It also stated that only Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have managed to reduce vacancies over 5 years (2017-2022) across all three pillars (judiciary, police, and prisons).

Notably, the India Justice Report (IJR) 2022 remains the only comprehensive quantitative index using the government’s own statistics to rank the capacity of the formal justice system operating in various states.

This IJR is a collaborative effort undertaken in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and TISS-Prayas.

First published in 2019, the third edition of the IJR adds an assessment of the capacity of State Human Rights Commissions. It continues to track improvements and persisting deficits in each state’s structural and financial capacity to deliver justice based on quantitative measurements of budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity across police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid for all 36 states and UTs.