Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

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5.INDIA JUSTICE REPORT 2020

The India Justice Report(2020) prepared by the Tata Trustsin collaboration with the

Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, DAKSH, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policyand the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiativehas been released recently.

The Report assesses the capacity of various states to deliver justice.

About the Report:

The report ana lysed expenditure, vacancies, representation of women, human resources, infrastructure, workload, diversity across 18 large and medium-sized stateswith a population of over 1 crore and 7 small states.
The overall ranking is a result of a state’s ranking across the four pillars of justice delivery system – Judiciary, Police, Prisons and Legal aid.
Maharashtrawas ranked topmostamong 18 states for the second time in a row, followed by Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Uttar Pradeshremains last.
Amongst the smaller states, Goaremained at the topand Arunachal Pradeshat the bottom

Women Ratio in Police Force:

Biharleads the list of 25 states for employing most women in its police forcewhich is 25.3%.
It is the only state to have more than 20% women in the police force.
However, women account for only 6.1% in the officer category.
Tamil Naduhas the highest percentage of women police officers(24.8%), followed by Mizoram (20.1%).

Women Ratio in Judiciary:

Overall, only 29% judges in High Courtsacross the country are women, but no state except Sikkimhas over 20% women judges.
Four states – Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Meghalaya have no woman judges in high courts.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

Karnatakais the only state to meet its quotas for SC, ST and OBC in both officer cadre and constabulary.
Chhattisgarhbeing the only other state that meets the diversity requirements for constabulary.
In the last 25 years, only 1.5 crorepeople have received legal aid with the Centre spending Rs. 1.05 per capita in 2019-20.
Two-thirdsof all prisoners are undertrialsawaiting a conviction.
A person who is being held in custody awaiting trial for a crime.
Legal services institutions remain affected by a lack of infrastructure, uneven human resource distribution, poor utilization of central funds and an inability to effectively harness LokAdalats to ease the burden on the judiciary.