High vacancies, low budgets: what ails social justice delivery

In 8 states there’s only one policeman for over 1,000 people. But high vacancies in the justice system are just the starting point

Any overview of the justice delivery system must begin at the fact that several vacancies persist across its four main pillars — judiciary, police, prisons and legal aid systems — as the newly released India Justice Report (IJR) 2020 shows. But this is only the starting point. The report reveals that high vacancies are related to a number of factors from scientific utilisation of resources to budget allocation to training capacities. Let’s take a look at the current situation.

According to the report which used 2019-2020 data from various government sources, in eight states there’s only one policeman for over 1,000 people. Out of 18 large and midsize states, no state meets the benchmark of 20,000 people per subordinate court judge recommended by a Law Commission report. In the judiciary, on average, one in three judges in the High Court and one in four among subordinate judges were yet to be hired. In police, there’s a shortage of 18% constables and 29% officers nationally.

In its second edition, the IJR 2020 tracks the rise and fall of each state’s capacity to deliver justice by offering a comparison to their performance recorded in IJR 2019. The report looks at 87 indicators across the four pillars, and creates an index based on a quantitative measurement of budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity across 18 large and medium sized states and seven small states. Thus, what we have is a granular understanding of the improvements and the shortfalls within each state as well as clear discernible trends nationally.

The 2020 report shows that human resource deficits continue to stubbornly ail the justice system. High vacancy is arguably one of the biggest factors impeding its functioning and even when vacancies are filled they are often done so in junior ranks. As of January 2020, while only three states have constable vacancy above 30% as many as 9 states including Rajasthan, MP, UP and Bihar among others have officer vacancy above 30%. In IJR 2019, this figure stood at 6 states for both constable and officer vacancies above 30%. In the judiciary, we find that vacancies are higher in high courts as compared to subordinate courts; something that has persisted since 2016-17, as both reports indicate.

Improve utilisation of funds

Across judiciary, police and prisons, the lion’s share of all expenditure goes towards salaries leaving little margin for recruiting more personnel. In nearly all the states, the problem of budget inadequacy is juxtaposed with that of underutilisation of available funds. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, utilised less than 15% of its police modernisation fund and had among the lowest expenditure on training per personnel (about Rs 3,300), but it recorded vacancies of 24% at the constable level and 40% at the officer level.

To be sure, there have been improvements in the justice system across states, in specific parameters. For instance, in Chhattisgarh, the number of officers in prisons rose from what we recorded in the previous report; at least 9 large and mid-sized states and two small states saw vacancies in the District Legal Services Authority secretary post come down to zero; and Jharkhand managed to improve the status of vacancies in 6 out of 8 key personnel positions across all pillars. IJR 2020 also finds that 21 states and Union Territories contributed 50% and above to the state’s legal aid spend as compared to only 16 states/uts in IJR 2019. This indicates a realization of the need to support legal aid functions within the state.

Turn the focus to training

A well-trained workforce forms the backbone of the justice system. According to Common Cause, one of the civil society groups involved in the making of IJR 2020, between 2012 and 2016 only 6.4% of India’s total police force had undergone training. This means that over 90% deal with the public without any up-to-date training. Nationally, the spend on training is a meagre 1.13% of the total police budget. Without commenting on quality, the IJR finds that in states like Uttar Pradesh, which has hired more than 47,000 constables, there is a severe dearth of training institutes. Taken together, the picture that emerges is a police that remains understaffed and inadequately trained. In 28 states/uts, a maximum of 1 out of 4 police personnel was trained. Similarly, in legal aid, only 6 states/uts could train all their panel lawyers.

A serious analysis of the gains we can make by investing in justice delivery compared against the losses accrued by judicial delays, prison overcrowding, poor access to free legal aid and lawlessness might help us quantify the problem. But if it’s reform we’re looking for, a good place to start would be to fill the vacancies focusing on increased diversity.

Valay Singh is the project lead of the India Justice Report 2020. The report released by Tata Trusts examines the state of justice delivery across prisons, judiciary, legal aid and police.

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