2 A closer look reveals wide disparity

The overall rankings, though a composite measure of a state’s standing in the country, do not mean that a state actually has the best or the worst overall justice delivery systems in place. The overall ranking is a result of a state’s ranking across the four pillars of justice delivery system. To understand what a state lacks or is good at, one needs to look at these subcategories. There is only one state, Jharkhand, whose rank has improved across the four pillars. Only two states, Bihar and Telangana, have got better at three pillars, while 12 states have ranked better in one or two pillars. On the contrary, three states have recorded a drop in their ranks across all four pillars. These include Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Haryana. Three other states have recorded a drop in their ranks across three pillars. These are Kerala, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. To be sure, a drop in ranking does not necessarily mean that the state of affairs in a state has got worse in absolute terms but that the other states have improved more than it, making them rank better. In fact, every state has shown improvement in at least some of the indicators across the four pillars.