New Delhi: Maharashtra has topped the list of states in delivering justice to people followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab and Kerala in the year 2020, according to a report by Tata Trusts.
Among the small states (where the population is less than one crore each), Tripura has topped the list followed by Sikkim and Goa, it said.
The second edition of the India Justice Report is based on publicly available data of different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery -- police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.
Maharashtra tops in delivering justice to people The ranking is an initiative of Tata Trust in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.
The report said that women comprise only 29 per cent of judges in India and on average, the share of women judges in the High Courts increased marginally from 11 per cent to 13 per cent, while in subordinate courts it increased from 28 per cent to 30 per cent.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice M B Lokur, who wrote the foreword of the report, said a major area of concern has been the number of pending cases in the courts which has spiralled out of control despite considerably fewer cases being filed due to the pandemic.
"At the time of writing, the National Judicial Data Grid indicates more than 35.34 million cases pending in the district courts across the country. Add to these another 4.74 million cases in all the High Courts and we arrive at an extremely disconcerting figure of more than 40 million cases pending in courts across the country," Justice Lokur said.
The former top court judge said justice reform is essential and unless it is taken up on a war footing, the problems encountered during the pandemic and most of the year gone by will only intensify to the detriment of human rights, civil liberties and meaningful justice delivery.
With PTI inputs
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