Towards fixing India’s flailing justice system
Old deficits — shortage of infrastructure, funds, manpower — plague the courts, police, and prisons. But there are a few bright spots in the bleak picture
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. For India’s justice system, does this mean it is designed for underperformance, inequity, and delay?
Based exclusively on the government’s own data, the recently launched fourth India Justice Report for 2025, like its predecessors, once again assesses the structural capacity of the police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid of 18 large and seven small states to deliver justice. The report lays bare the reality of the system -- short of money, infrastructure, and manpower.
Reeling under impossible workloads and under-representative of the people it serves, it is too slow, distant, and difficult to be useful for far too many. It does what it can but is increasingly unable to deliver what is an essential public service.
State budgets are stretched and there is never enough money to resource the justice system adequately. Budgets mostly go to paying salaries leaving little for infrastructure, equipment, or skilling. Even when state GDPs rise, only a handful of states manage to increase their justice budgets in proportion. In truth, the financial cost of endless delay and dysfunction remains unquantified. The human cost is all too visible.
From the lakhs of people waiting for their day in court, as victims or in civil, family and corporate disputes, to those trapped in jails without trial, victims of custodial violence, illegal demolitions, and arbitrary arrests, the price is paid in daily suffering and shattered lives.
Looked across time, justice deficits everywhere have piled up. One in every four justice system workers is missing: 31% vacancies among high court judges; 22% in police; and, one in three prison staff is absent. Community-embedded paralegals are diminishing. Police stations cover ever larger populations and square areas especially in rural areas and rural folk are increasingly forced to live with fewer and fewer legal remedies to rely on.
Despite a steady growth in numbers, the civilian police — the ones we encounter in stations or on the streets — remain hobbled by persistent vacancies. Nationally, one in five posts is vacant, which is over 500,000 personnel. Although absolute numbers have increased, India still has one of the lowest police-to-population ratios in the world. More than 80% of the force comprises constables, while vacancies at supervisory and technical levels run at 35%, skewing the ratio of supervisory officers to constables far above the desired 1:4.
Recruitment remains unpredictable. The cycle from announcement to appointment can take over two years. The sudden surge caused by irregular hiring cycles overwhelms training institutions, which average just over 1% of all police budgets. Most recruits then begin duty with minimal preparation or understanding of their role. Naturally, public dissatisfaction is inevitable.
Police often cite the lack of resources as a reason for underperformance, but it does not excuse arrant illegality. Nevertheless, such conditions foster subcultures where procedural shortcuts and impunity are normalised. The goal then is not more ill-trained and ill-supervised police but better constitutionally conditioned policing.
The eye watering number of five crore pending cases is well known. With only 15 judges per 10 lakh population in place — against 21 sanctioned or the 50 recommended 40 years ago — each high court judge faces 7,000 plus cases, and each lower court judge, 2,200. t It is not that the system is not at work. It is simply exhausted. With an exhausted system that cannot clear all the new cases and backlog, the pile up is projected to cross six crore cases soon.
The consequence is overcrowded prisons. Despite the Supreme Court (SC)’s directions to grant bail, special mechanisms like undertrial review committees, defence counsel schemes, State-funded bail, jail-based legal clinics, and thousands of legal aid lawyers, overcrowding has risen from 18% to 30% in just 10 years. Ninety of 1,330 jails now hold double the number of inmates than they should. Some, like Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh hold over four times that. A report to the SC notes that nearly 40% of inmates have no place to sleep. Only a third of these poor wretched folk are convicts. The rest — 76% and rising -- are undertrials. The length of their stays is growing with each passing year. Those inside are mostly drawn from the most disadvantaged and marginalised communities. The real crime here is poverty.
And yet, across this bleak canvas, some colour is emerging. Budgets have grown. Forensic labs are being overhauled. Technology is advancing — digital case management in Delhi, e-prison systems in Telangana, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered legal aid chatbots in Maharashtra and better CCTV coverage in Tamil Nadu’s police stations. Inclusion is inching forward. Bihar’s police force now has 24% women. Women comprise 38% of subordinate court judges —and will become a feeder into high courts. Today women make up only 14%. For the first time, transgender persons are being counted in official police and prison data (Chhattisgarh). Kerala is piloting disability-friendly courtrooms.
Caste representation is also improving, albeit unevenly. Mediation is, haltingly gaining traction — particularly in commercial disputes in Gujarat. Specialist institutions, created to declutter the courts, like cybercrime units, POCSO and fast-track courts though, often remain underfunded and overburdened.
But where institutions lumber, individual action can make a difference. One conscientious chief justice in Odisha, diligently overseeing the terrain reduced prison occupancy from 91% to 83%, raised accommodation levels, and brought down officer vacancies from 46% to 14%. Where there is a will, there is a way.
States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha have shown what is possible. Through consistent effort — in legal aid, technology, training, reducing vacancies — they’ve climbed the ranks. Not revolutions, but proof that incremental change, built on data and will, works.
The truth is we know what needs doing: careful husbanding of budgets, regular recruitment, investment in training and upskilling, prioritising resources for front line mechanisms, and creating feedback loops from local communities and users — litigants, complainants, inmates. All this is achievable.
The problem is not ignorance — it is inertia . The knowledge of what must change exists in every report, CAG assessment, expert committee and Law Commission paper. Further delay just institutionalises injustice.
Justice is not some high ideal. It is an attainable goal and the duty to deliver lies with governments and courts. There is no silver bullet. But there is a path — and it begins with a demonstrable and urgent effort to repair. If we are to remain a rule-of-law democracy, where the Constitution is a lived reality, justice must work, and work every day: for everyone. Because if it doesn’t, nothing else will.
Maja Daruwala is chief editor, India Justice Report. The views expressed are personal
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. For India’s justice system, does this mean it is designed for underperformance, inequity, and delay?
Based exclusively on the government’s own data, the recently launched fourth India Justice Report for 2025, like its predecessors, once again assesses the structural capacity of the police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid of 18 large and seven small states to deliver justice. The report lays bare the reality of the system -- short of money, infrastructure, and manpower.
Reeling under impossible workloads and under-representative of the people it serves, it is too slow, distant, and difficult to be useful for far too many. It does what it can but is increasingly unable to deliver what is an essential public service.
State budgets are stretched and there is never enough money to resource the justice system adequately. Budgets mostly go to paying salaries leaving little for infrastructure, equipment, or skilling. Even when state GDPs rise, only a handful of states manage to increase their justice budgets in proportion. In truth, the financial cost of endless delay and dysfunction remains unquantified. The human cost is all too visible.
From the lakhs of people waiting for their day in court, as victims or in civil, family and corporate disputes, to those trapped in jails without trial, victims of custodial violence, illegal demolitions, and arbitrary arrests, the price is paid in daily suffering and shattered lives.
Looked across time, justice deficits everywhere have piled up. One in every four justice system workers is missing: 31% vacancies among high court judges; 22% in police; and, one in three prison staff is absent. Community-embedded paralegals are diminishing. Police stations cover ever larger populations and square areas especially in rural areas and rural folk are increasingly forced to live with fewer and fewer legal remedies to rely on.
Despite a steady growth in numbers, the civilian police — the ones we encounter in stations or on the streets — remain hobbled by persistent vacancies. Nationally, one in five posts is vacant, which is over 500,000 personnel. Although absolute numbers have increased, India still has one of the lowest police-to-population ratios in the world. More than 80% of the force comprises constables, while vacancies at supervisory and technical levels run at 35%, skewing the ratio of supervisory officers to constables far above the desired 1:4.
Recruitment remains unpredictable. The cycle from announcement to appointment can take over two years. The sudden surge caused by irregular hiring cycles overwhelms training institutions, which average just over 1% of all police budgets. Most recruits then begin duty with minimal preparation or understanding of their role. Naturally, public dissatisfaction is inevitable.
Police often cite the lack of resources as a reason for underperformance, but it does not excuse arrant illegality. Nevertheless, such conditions foster subcultures where procedural shortcuts and impunity are normalised. The goal then is not more ill-trained and ill-supervised police but better constitutionally conditioned policing.
The eye watering number of five crore pending cases is well known. With only 15 judges per 10 lakh population in place — against 21 sanctioned or the 50 recommended 40 years ago — each high court judge faces 7,000 plus cases, and each lower court judge, 2,200. t It is not that the system is not at work. It is simply exhausted. With an exhausted system that cannot clear all the new cases and backlog, the pile up is projected to cross six crore cases soon.
The consequence is overcrowded prisons. Despite the Supreme Court (SC)’s directions to grant bail, special mechanisms like undertrial review committees, defence counsel schemes, State-funded bail, jail-based legal clinics, and thousands of legal aid lawyers, overcrowding has risen from 18% to 30% in just 10 years. Ninety of 1,330 jails now hold double the number of inmates than they should. Some, like Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh hold over four times that. A report to the SC notes that nearly 40% of inmates have no place to sleep. Only a third of these poor wretched folk are convicts. The rest — 76% and rising -- are undertrials. The length of their stays is growing with each passing year. Those inside are mostly drawn from the most disadvantaged and marginalised communities. The real crime here is poverty.
And yet, across this bleak canvas, some colour is emerging. Budgets have grown. Forensic labs are being overhauled. Technology is advancing — digital case management in Delhi, e-prison systems in Telangana, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered legal aid chatbots in Maharashtra and better CCTV coverage in Tamil Nadu’s police stations. Inclusion is inching forward. Bihar’s police force now has 24% women. Women comprise 38% of subordinate court judges —and will become a feeder into high courts. Today women make up only 14%. For the first time, transgender persons are being counted in official police and prison data (Chhattisgarh). Kerala is piloting disability-friendly courtrooms.
Caste representation is also improving, albeit unevenly. Mediation is, haltingly gaining traction — particularly in commercial disputes in Gujarat. Specialist institutions, created to declutter the courts, like cybercrime units, POCSO and fast-track courts though, often remain underfunded and overburdened.
But where institutions lumber, individual action can make a difference. One conscientious chief justice in Odisha, diligently overseeing the terrain reduced prison occupancy from 91% to 83%, raised accommodation levels, and brought down officer vacancies from 46% to 14%. Where there is a will, there is a way.
States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha have shown what is possible. Through consistent effort — in legal aid, technology, training, reducing vacancies — they’ve climbed the ranks. Not revolutions, but proof that incremental change, built on data and will, works.
The truth is we know what needs doing: careful husbanding of budgets, regular recruitment, investment in training and upskilling, prioritising resources for front line mechanisms, and creating feedback loops from local communities and users — litigants, complainants, inmates. All this is achievable.
The problem is not ignorance — it is inertia . The knowledge of what must change exists in every report, CAG assessment, expert committee and Law Commission paper. Further delay just institutionalises injustice.
Justice is not some high ideal. It is an attainable goal and the duty to deliver lies with governments and courts. There is no silver bullet. But there is a path — and it begins with a demonstrable and urgent effort to repair. If we are to remain a rule-of-law democracy, where the Constitution is a lived reality, justice must work, and work every day: for everyone. Because if it doesn’t, nothing else will.
Maja Daruwala is chief editor, India Justice Report. The views expressed are personal
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