Understanding the India Justice Report 2025: Insights and Implications

What is the India Justice Report 2025?

The India Justice Report 2025 serves as a detailed evaluation of how various Indian states and union territories manage justice delivery through their police forces, judiciary, legal aid services, and prison systems. This report identifies significant shortcomings in infrastructure, human resources, budget allocations, and accessibility, emphasizing the importance of equity, inclusion, and efficiency in the justice system.

Who Prepared the Report?

Initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019, this edition marks the fourth iteration of the report. It has been developed in collaboration with various organizations, including the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.

Objectives of the Report

• To evaluate the justice delivery system at the state level
• To highlight disparities in judicial access and quality
• To promote evidence-based policy interventions
• To advocate for timely reforms in judiciary, policing, and legal aid systems
• To ensure equitable access to justice for all sections of society

Current Judge-to-Population Ratio in India

India currently has only 15 judges per million people, significantly below the Law Commission's recommendation of 50 judges per million as set in 1987.

Current Number of Judges

Presently, there are approximately 21,285 judges serving a staggering population of 1.4 billion.

Judicial Vacancies

As of 2025, the vacancies in High Courts stand at 21%, while district courts also grapple with shortages, leading to an increased workload for each judge.

Average Caseload per Judge

Each judge in district courts is tasked with handling around 2,200 cases. In High Courts such as Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh, this number escalates to about 15,000 cases per judge.

Representation in the Judiciary

• Women constitute 38.3% of district judges and 14% within High Courts.
• Only 6% of Supreme Court judges are women, with just one woman presiding over a High Court.
• Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) represent 14% and 5% of district court judges, respectively.
• Other Backward Classes (OBCs) account for 25.6% of the overall judiciary.
• Since 2018, only 37 out of 698 High Court appointments have been made from SC/ST categories.

Case Pendency Insights

• In most High Courts (with five exceptions), over half of the cases have been pending for more than three years.
• In several district courts, over 40% of cases have also been unresolved for more than three years.
• In Delhi, 20% of cases are pending for over five years, with 2% lingering for more than ten years.

Financial Aspects of Legal Aid and Judiciary

• The per capita annual expenditure on legal aid is merely Rs 6.46.
• The total spending on the judiciary averages Rs 182 per person each year.
• No state allocates more than 1% of its annual budget to the judiciary.

Recommendations from the Report

• Immediate filling of vacancies across all judicial levels
• Increased budget allocation to the justice system
• Improving representation of women, SCs, STs, and OBCs
• Expanding legal aid services and ensuring their accessibility
• Enhanced case and court management to reduce pendency and boost clearance rates
• Integrating judicial reforms into national governance and urban policy