India Justice Report 2025: Where Do We Stand?

The India Justice Report (IJR) 2025, published earlier this year, delivers a comprehensive analysis of the institutional capacity of the justice delivery system in India. Now in its fourth edition, the IJR has become the only quantitative index of its kind in India, relying entirely on government data to assess how well states are equipped to deliver justice to their citizens.

Launched first in 2019 with the support of Tata Trusts, the 2025 report has been jointly produced in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and TISS-Prayas.

Why the IJR Matters: A Tool for Accountability

The IJR 2025 evaluates the justice system using five key pillars: police, prisons, judiciary, legal aid, and human rights commissions. These pillars are measured using a mix of indicators related to human resources, infrastructure, budgetary allocations, workload, and diversity.

Unlike qualitative assessments or opinion-based rankings, the IJR is rooted in hard statistics. This makes it a vital tool not just for policymakers, but also for UPSC aspirants, civil society groups, and legal practitioners aiming to understand the practical strengths and weaknesses in India’s justice infrastructure.

Policing: An Urban-Centric Crisis

The report notes a continued concentration of police infrastructure in urban areas, with a decline in the number of rural police stations between 2017 and 2023. This urban bias results in weakened law enforcement in rural regions, where crimes often go unreported or are poorly investigated.

The police-to-population ratio in India stands at 155 per lakh, significantly below the sanctioned strength of 197 per lakh. Bihar exemplifies this challenge, with just 81 police personnel per lakh population, one of the lowest in the country. Such shortages lead to delayed investigations, poor community policing, and compromised public safety.

Judiciary: A System Choked by Backlogs

One of the most alarming trends revealed by the report is the 20% rise in pending cases, which have now surpassed the five crore mark nationwide. Contributing to this backlog are the vacancies in High Courts (33%) and district courts (21%), alongside an acute shortage of court halls.

Each district court judge handles an average workload of 2,200 cases, while the case clearance rate remains at 94%, insufficient to keep up with new filings. The result is a delayed justice delivery system that erodes public trust and contributes to legal uncertainty.

Prisons: Overcrowding and Underfunding

The IJR 2025 highlights an alarming overcrowding rate in Indian prisons, with the average occupancy standing at 131%. In some facilities, this number exceeds 400%, putting a severe strain on infrastructure, safety, and human dignity.

Even more troubling is the statistic that 76% of all prisoners are undertrials, many of whom remain behind bars for extended periods without conviction. About 25% of undertrials have spent between one to three years in detention awaiting trial.

The daily expenditure per inmate is just ₹121, which starkly illustrates inadequate prison funding. These figures reflect poorly against the aspirations laid out in the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023. The report also draws attention to the Amitava Roy Committee on Prison Reforms, which emphasized the need for systemic improvements in correctional administration.

Legal Aid: An Uneven and Underutilized System

Despite India’s commitment to free legal aid, the system suffers from uneven deployment of human resources and suboptimal fund utilization. A significant gap exists between urban and rural access, with one legal aid clinic serving 163 villages on average.

Currently, the legal aid network consists of 41,553 panel lawyers and 43,050 paralegal volunteers, yet their outreach remains limited. The lack of community-based legal support undermines access to justice, especially for the poor and marginalised.

Forensics and Human Rights: Overlooked but Essential

The report underlines serious capacity issues in India’s forensic infrastructure. Most state forensic labs are underfunded, poorly equipped, and understaffed, resulting in significant delays in investigations and court proceedings.

Similarly, State Human Rights Commissions suffer from persistent vacancies in leadership positions and an overall lack of robust mechanisms for complaint resolution. These shortcomings reflect a broader institutional neglect of human rights enforcement mechanisms.

A Silver Lining: Positive Developments in 2025

Amid the challenges, there are some noteworthy improvements:

• The representation of women judges in the district judiciary has risen to 38%, signaling gradual progress toward gender equity in the legal system.
• 83% of all police stations across the country now have at least one CCTV camera, enhancing transparency and accountability.
• Several states have increased their justice-related budget allocations, reflecting growing recognition of the need for structural reform.

State Rankings: Karnataka Leads, UP and WB Languish

In the overall ranking of large and mid-sized states, Karnataka retained its first position, followed by Andhra Pradesh, which jumped from 5th to 2nd. Telangana and Kerala follow closely.

At the bottom of the list:

• Uttar Pradesh ranks 17th, up by one place
• West Bengal slips to 18th, down from 17th

India and the Rule of Law Index 2024

In a related development, the World Justice Project (WJP) released the Rule of Law Index 2024, in which India ranks 79 out of 142 countries. The index assesses countries across eight dimensions:

• Constraints on government powers
• Absence of corruption
• Open government
• Fundamental rights
• Order and security
• Regulatory enforcement
• Civil justice
• Criminal justice

India’s criminal justice system ranks 89th, indicating weak mechanisms to prosecute offenses and deliver fair outcomes. Its civil justice system performs even worse, at 111th, largely due to issues such as accessibility, delays, corruption, and lack of impartial dispute resolution.