11 Richest States Allocate 4% Of Budget For Justice Delivery

The first of its kind report titled Budgets for Justice, it analysed budgets of the 11 states with the highest gross domestic product (or GSDP) with a population of at least 10 million--Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal--since 2021-22. Kerala, which had the 11th highest GSDP, was not included in this analysis as latest data were not available for the state.

The report analysed the funding of the justice system–that is, the four pillars and forensics, prosecution, and state human right commissions--which primarily fell under the home and justice and law departments. Based on IJR 2022, IndiaSpend had reported in April 2023 that in terms of justice delivery, four southern states--Karnataka (1), Tamil Nadu (2), Telangana (3) and Andhra Pradesh (5)--were at the top, with Gujarat ranking fourth.

Excluding the police, these 11 states spent Rs 41,092 crore on the justice system, which is 0.32% of their combined GSDP. In comparison, in 2022-23, the UK spent 0.5% of its GDP on these functions, data show. The UK excludes the police from its ‘total justice spending’ because “the police perform many functions some of which are not directly related to the justice system and might more usefully be described as ensuring the security of the public, rather than enforcing law and order”.

While there are variations in the allocations for justice in different states, the per capita spending is low and so is the funding for training in police, judiciary and prisons as a share of the allocations. Experts feel that funds for the justice system must be prioritised, including for forensics which is affected by poor infrastructure and high vacancies.

Funds increase, but per capita spending low

On average, 4.3% of states’ budget funds were allocated for justice in 2024-25. This ranged from 2.6% (Rs 12,782 crore) in Rajasthan to 7.3% (Rs 51,005 crore) in Uttar Pradesh, while Maharashtra, which had the highest GSDP at Rs 24.1 lakh crore, allocated 5.3% of its budget.

The states spend Rs 389 per person a year on the justice system (excluding the police). An average Indian spends more each month on milk and milk products, according to the latest Consumption Expenditure Survey. Include the spending on police, and the per capita spending goes up to Rs 2,056 per year.

Given its large population, Uttar Pradesh, which allocated the most for justice (Rs 51,005 crore) in 2024-25, spent lower per capita than Telangana, Maharashtra, and Haryana.

It is understandable that police receive the larger share of financial resources because it has the largest workforce, infrastructure needs and workload, and services court processes among other tasks, said Valay Singh, Lead, IJR. “While this figure of Rs 1,667 seems skewed in comparison to average per capita spends on judiciary, prisons and legal aid, we must remember that the lack of enough disaggregation conceals the actual expenditures on frontline police personnel in Civil police, their recruitment and training, funds for police stations and other citizen-centred services.” he said. “Our sense is that spending would be much less.”

Vijay Raghavan, professor, Centre for Criminology and Justice at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, said that while it is important to invest in the police, not investing enough in the judiciary increases the workload of judges and case pendency. “There must be adequate funding for court infrastructure and court staff,” Raghavan, also the project director of TISS’s Prayas, which works on social work intervention in criminal justice, said. “In prisons too we need to invest in filling vacancies and improving infrastructure. These issues are interconnected for the justice system institutions to work well. Additionally, if a state is seen as well governed in terms of justice and law and order, it helps improve the business environment too.”

Over the years, IndiaSpend has reported on the issues of police, prisons, legal aid, and bail, highlighting the challenges faced within the justice system and by people while engaging with it. In December 2024, we reported that India’s prisons were 21% over capacity, but less than half the prisoners identified for release were actually released. The cash bail scheme that was announced in 2023 by the Union government to support poor prisoners was not meeting its objective.

IndiaSpend has written to the Union home ministry and the justice department for comments on state fund allocations for justice and related issues. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Low fund allocation for training a cause for concern

In 2024-25, 1.4% of the police budgets across 11 states was allocated to training, as was 0.6% of prison budgets and 0.5% of the judiciary budget, the analysis found. While the funds for police training as a percentage of the overall budget has increased over the years, that for judiciary and prisons has stagnated.

Overall, police training was allocated Rs 2,208 crore in 2024-25 in the 11 states, 39% more than the previous year’s revised estimates. More than a quarter of the allocation was in Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest police force with more than 269,000 personnel. While the increase between the actual expenditure in 2021-22 and budget allocation was 91%, the actual expenditure increased only 10% over the year until 2022-23. According to the report between 2021-22 (AE) and 2022-23 (RE of Rs 283 crore), the UP’s actual police strength increased by 5%, however, the number of training institutes and their capacity to train personnel remain unchanged. The report said that during this period, travel allowance under the training budget in UP doubled to Rs 10 crore, and salaries for the staff of training institutes to Rs 350 crore.

At least three states--Haryana, Karnataka and Maharashtra--allocated less than 1% for police training from its police budget, while Madhya Pradesh allocated the most (2.4%).

The share of funds for training of judges and judicial staff ranged from 0.4% and 0.6% between 2021-22 and 2024-25. Only UP invested more than 1% of its judiciary budget for training. At least six states had reduced the share compared with the previous year.

“There needs to be a much higher priority across the justice sector,” said Singh. “The lack of training-related data is another limitation that prevents us from understanding the quality of training, frequency and its efficacy.”

Government data show that there are 21 judges for 1 million Indians. As of February 2025, there were 5,292 judicial vacancies in district and subordinate courts and 369 vacancies in the High Courts and Supreme court. This adds to the burden of pending cases in courts. There are more than 45 million cases 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 Courts level, 80% of the 6.2 million cases are more than a year old.

The report said that Andhra Pradesh reported over 100% utilisation of its training budget for judiciary in 2022-23, followed by Karnataka (98%), Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu at 94% each. UP utilised only 41% of its training budget in 2022-23, despite having the highest budget allocation for that year.

The training fund share for prisons was no different. For every Rs 100 spent on prisons in 2024-25, only Rs 0.23 is spent on training by the 11 states, said the report.

India has more than half a million prisoners, of whom more than three in four are undertrials. The training budget in prisons is spent on upkeep of training institutes and on the salaries of training staff and infrastructure needs of these institutes. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had more than 1% of the budget share for prison training. Data for four states--Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and West Bengal--were not available.

UP, which has the most number of prisoners in India, and the third highest prison occupancy rate (180%), allocated about Rs 6 crore for prison training. The state has the most district jails, according to 2022 prisons data, with more than 108,000 prisoners.

The IJR data show that while training allocation for prisons increased by 32% in 2024-25 compared to the revised estimate of 2022-23, the utilisation was 95%. As of December 2023, Karnataka led with 66% of trained prison staff while Tamil Nadu had the lowest with 7%. Despite having the highest trained prison staff, Karnataka noted a fall in training budgets between 2022-23 and 2024-25 by 4% to Rs 75 lakh, the report said.

“As far as police and prisons are concerned, the training that they get is primarily the initial one they undergo after joining the service,” said Raghavan. “Ideally they must undergo training or refresher courses on a regular basis to keep up with new laws and procedures.” He added that training also helps to recalibrate the justice system functionaries with current social realities and ideally, they should undergo training every three years at least.

New criminal laws enforced, but low share of funds for forensics

India implemented new criminal laws in July 2024 to replace the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Evidence Act. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which replaces the CrPC, mandates the collection of forensic evidence at the crime scene by a 'forensics expert' for offenses punishable by imprisonment of seven years or more. In March 2025, Home Minister Amit Shah “..stressed the need to achieve 100% forensic sample testing”.

The Union government has approved the National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme with a total financial outlay of Rs 2,254 crore from 2024-25 to 2028-29 for forensic testing infrastructure, to address the shortage of forensic professionals and fast track the examination of cases in the forensic science laboratories. In three years, there will be 40,000 trained personnel in forensics to handle the increased demand, Shah had said in July 2024.

The focus on improving forensic capacity is welcome and long overdue, but there continues to be a high number of vacancies, said Singh. He added that unless state governments start allocating much more funds and have a clear roadmap for undertaking recruitments and infrastructure development, the system will continue to crumble, with new criminal law provisions being enforced.

The IJR analysis showed that in three years until 2024-25, less than 1% of the police budget was allocated for forensics. Compared to 2023-24 revised estimates, the funds for forensics overall in 11 states fell nearly 2% to Rs 1,218 crore. Again, UP had the highest allocation at Rs 284 crore in 2024. Of this, Rs 160 crore is allocated for establishment of a Forensic Science Laboratory, said the report.

IndiaSpend reported in August 2023 that forensic science lab facilities remained “highly inadequate” in UP, according to a 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) audit report on Modernisation and Strengthening of Police Forces in UP. More than 6,617 samples were pending for examination at Lucknow, Agra and Varanasi FSLs as of January 2011, which had more than doubled to 15,033 by March 2016, said the CAG’s report.

“The time taken by the forensic department to share reports is an indication of inadequate infrastructure and personnel. If forensics is not timely, it leads to loss of evidence and delays in filing charge sheets etc,” said Raghavan.

According to government data, there are 32 State Forensic Science Laboratories (SFSL) and 97 Regional Forensic Science Laboratories (RFSL). Of the 3,211 sanctioned posts for 26 forensic science laboratories for which this information was available, 40% were vacant, showed the IndiaSpend report.

Of the 1,294 vacant posts, more than two in three were scientific posts, including personnel involved in any part of a forensic examination, such as the director, scientific officer, laboratory assistant or digital analyst.

The vacancies impact pendency in laboratories. While data regarding pendency of cases in SFSLs are not maintained centrally between 2020-21 to October 2024-25, nearly 6% of 69,826 cases received by the seven central forensic laboratories were pending.

While states utilised, on average, 90% of their respective forensic budgets in 2022-23, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal showed over 100% utilisation, according to the IJR report. Gujarat reported 54% in the same year including for modernisation of forensic science laboratory and modernisation of police force (forensic science) [both 60% central, 40% state contribution], construction of FSL buildings, purchase of equipment, vehicle for FSLs, chemical and others etc. However, the budget for modernisation of the forensic science laboratory has not been provided for 2022-23 onwards, said the report.

In the 2025-26 Union budget, the government had allocated 9% more than the previous year's Rs 3,720 crore for modernisation of police forces scheme. But the revised estimate was 30% less than the allocated budget, showing that the funds were underutilised. The scheme’s objective is to strengthen police infrastructure by construction of secure police stations, training centres, police housing (residential), equipping the police stations with the required mobility, modern weaponry, communication equipment and forensic set-up.

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