Southern States Best In Justice Delivery, Vacancies Persist Nationwide

While Karnataka retained its position at the top of the charts, Uttar Pradesh improved its ranking, from 18th among the large states in the previous three editions to 17th this year, while West Bengal was relegated to bottom.

Among the seven smaller states, Sikkim was best ranked and Goa was at the bottom. Sikkim, in terms of its score out of 10 for various indicators, received 5.2 which was higher than the score received by Maharashtra that was ranked 10th. Manipur, Assam and Nagaland--where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 is in force--were excluded from the analysis, as were India’s eight Union Territories.

The report derives the rankings based on the states’ performance on four pillars--police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid. IJR, in partnership with DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and TISS-Prayas, uses data from the Bureau of Police Research and Development, Prison Statistics of India, Comptroller and Auditor General reports, parliament questions, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), budget documents etc.

Vacancies in the justice system persist across all pillars, the report found. Experts say that while reasons for vacancies across states may vary, it largely stems from delays in recruitment, inadequate supervision and oversight to fill vacancies, systemic gender bias faced by women, and highlight the need for strict compliance with reservation targets.

The report projects that in the next five years, as a result of these vacancies, subordinate courts will see a 15% increase in pending cases, while high courts will see a 17% increase by 2030. Further, prison occupancy will rise to 133%, accompanied by a 20% rise in the number of undertrial prisoners--increasing the workload of the already-overburdened prison staff.

States have made investments in justice delivery

Compared to the previous report (2022), Karnataka which scored 6.78 of a total of 10 improved its rank to 1 in legal aid while it fell by a rank to 3rd in police and by two ranks to 4th in judiciary. Telangana was ranked best in police, but was 10th in legal aid. Kerala’s police rank was 15 while it was scored the best in judiciary.

“While Karnataka leads in legal aid and has the highest number of paralegal volunteers in the country, and the lowest vacancy among police officers, Tamil Nadu tops in prisons with one of the lowest shares of prison population and occupancy rates,” said Valay Singh, Lead, IJR.

He added that Kerala leads the judiciary pillar owing to low judge vacancies and high share of women judges in the district judiciary, while Telangana and Andhra Pradesh also outperform other states, particularly in the police.

Overall, there has been a steady growth in investment in strengthening the structural capacity of the justice delivery system across all key institutions assessed, said the report.

IndiaSpend had reported, based on IJR 2022, that four of the five south Indian states, with the exception of Kerala, were ranked at the top in terms of diversity, particularly caste or gender.

1 in 3 high court judge positions vacant

Across India’s 25 high courts, one in three judge positions are vacant, the report shows. The proposal for appointment of a judge of a High Court is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court. The proposal is forwarded with requisite information to the Union government and sent to the CJI and a collegium of two Judges of the Supreme Court for their consideration. The former Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, the collegium proposed 168 names for HC judges, while 142 were cleared by the Union government.

Uttar Pradesh had the highest vacancies among high court judges, operating with half of its sanctioned bench strength as of February 2025. Kerala had the lowest vacancy at 4%. Besides, one in four high court staff positions were vacant across the country. Gujarat had the highest at 47% and Kerala had the lowest at 4%.

Leah Verghese, research manager at DAKSH, a think-tank focused on justice system reforms and access to justice, said that the process of selecting and appointing judges in the high courts with no fixed timelines makes it difficult for the Supreme Court to plan for filling vacancies in any systematic manner. “Even if the process of filling these predictable vacancies [due to retirements] begins in advance, there is no certainty of the process concluding within any reasonable time. Vacancies pile up because retirements/expansions are not anticipated and filled in a timely manner,” said Verghese.

At the subordinate courts, one in five judge positions are vacant, the report shows. Gujarat had the highest vacancy rate at 31%, while Uttarakhand had the lowest at 9%.

According to a February 2025 response in Parliament, sanctioned posts of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts increased 6% between December 2020 and February 2025, but one in five have remained vacant. It said that filling up of vacant district and subordinate courts positions was the responsibility of the High Courts and state governments. There are 21 judges for every million persons in India. Two decades ago in 2002, there were 14.7 judges per million.

Verghese added that the issues in vacancies in subordinate courts and court staff was due to delays in recruitment cycles, lack of infrastructure, and handling capacity of state public service commissions and related bodies in recruitment of executive and judicial staff positions.

In March, IndiaSpend had reported that there are more than 45 million cases pending in district courts, of which 73% are more than a year old. The most cited reason for delay is that the counsel was not available in more than 6.6 million cases at the district level. At the High Court level, 80% of the 6.2 million cases are more than a year old.

The 2009 Law Commission report had recommended that vacations in the higher judiciary be curtailed by at least 10 to 15 days and the court working hours should be extended by at least 30 minutes to reduce backlogs.

Police vacancies

In the police constabulary, as of January 2023--the month for which latest data were available--at least seven large states reported that more than one in four positions were vacant. West Bengal had 41% vacancy.

At the officer level, that is assistant sub-inspectors to directors-general of police, six large states reported more than one in four positions vacant. Rajasthan had 52% vacancy among officers, with Bihar following at 45%.

Persistent vacancies in the police means the department is unable to function at its optimum level, and impact the ability of police departments to enforce an eight-hour shift system in police stations, said Devyani Srivastava, Senior Manager-Research, National Law School of India University and co-author of the chapter on police.

“Vacancies in the officers ranks (Deputy Superintendent to Director General) weakens managerial capabilities and results in poor supervision over the subordinate rank performance, while those in the investigating ranks (Assistant Sub Inspector, SI and Inspector) results in case overload and runs the risk of compromising both the quality of investigation as well as compliance with procedural safeguards,” she added.

Constabulary vacancies affect the ability of local police to effectively patrol its jurisdictions, provide timely response and provide assistance in case investigation as required, among other things, Srivastava said.

Many states do not have a dedicated police selection board and states do not recruit annually nor regularly, said Singh of IJR. ”...each cycle could take two to three years: Madhya Pradesh’s 2020 cycle of recruitment which began in October 2020 ended in November 2022, and Bihar’s recruitment drive which began in November 2020 ended in September 2022,” he said.

The latest available 2022 Crime In India data show that there were more than 2 million cases under the erstwhile Indian Penal Code pending from the previous year with the police and more than 57,000 cases which were reopened.

The IJR report finds that of the nearly 10,000 sanctioned posts for forensics across states, nearly 50% remain vacant. Telangana had the highest vacancies at 91%, followed by Bihar at 85%.

IndiaSpend has reported on the large vacancies in government forensic labs, funding delays and underutilisation of budgets, and need for more space and better infrastructure. This impacts time-bound investigation, creates hierarchical gaps in related institutions and affects supervision of new recruits, among other factors.

Prisons running with 40% shortage of medical officers, staff

The trend of high vacancies continued in the prison system as well. The Union government’s latest prison data pertain to 2022. The 2023 data are in the final stages of data validation, the government told Parliament last month. But based on existing data from December 2022, prisons are underserved due to vacancies across various categories including prison officers, cadre and correction staff (probation officer / welfare officer, psychologist / psychiatrist), and medical officers and staff.

IndiaSpend has reported on India's persistent issues of prison overcrowding. According to latest prison data, there were 570,000 prisoners as of December 31, 2022. The prison population had reduced 8% by April 2024.

Based on 2022 prison data, less than two-thirds of the sanctioned medical staff strength of 3,570 was filled--that is for every medical staff, there were 270 prisoners. A December 2017 Lok Sabha report on women in detention and access to justice showed that the ratio of women prisoners to overall medical staff was 10. By 2022, this had increased to 11 based on overall actual strength and to 81 if women prisoners to women medical officers/staff ratio was considered.

The IJR report looks at vacancies of medical officers such as doctors or physicians and medical staff such as nurses, paramedical staff, pharmacists etc.

Of the 25 large and small states ranked, prisons in 11 states had medical officer vacancies of over 40%. In Uttarakhand it was as high as 90%, while in Jharkhand, Karnataka and West Bengal it was over 70%. IndiaSpend had reported on the problems faced by prisons in managing the spread during the peak of the Covid pandemic. All large states had vacancies in medical officers, the lowest reported in Andhra Pradesh at 4.5%. The state’s prisons, which were 44% over capacity, had reported the highest number of movements of inmates for medical assistance in 2022.

No large state reported 100% occupancy of sanctioned posts across categories in prisons. In Chhattisgarh, there were vacancies in at least half of the post for prison officers, correctional staff, medical officers and staff.

Legal aid vacancies crop up in 4 states

One of the connected issues that lead to overcrowding, particularly continued incarceration of undertrials, is the access to legal aid. More than 75% of prisoners in India are under trial. While there has been initiative to reduce the prison population, lack of adequate quality legal aid is a problem.

According to the report, the deficit of District Legal Aid secretaries fell 50% to 34 positions from 2022, but vacancies in Tamil Nadu have jumped to 50% from 9.4% in 2022. Four states--Andhra Pradesh (8%), Bihar (3%), Kerala (23%), and Odisha (13%)--that had earlier recorded no vacancies saw an increase, it added. Legal aid is a right in India, but its quality is impacted by the way legal aid counsel are treated by the justice system, IndiaSpend reported in December 2022.

Each DLSA is expected to have 50 paralegal volunteers for legal awareness and resources--for a total of 35,450 across 709 districts. As of September 2024, there were 43,050, a 38% reduction from 2019, said the report. Only five states and Union Territories (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Karnataka, and Puducherry) saw an increase in PLVs, while seven reported a reduction of more than 60%.

IndiaSpend has written to the home ministry, the department of justice and NALSA for their comments on vacancies. We will update the story when we receive a response.

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