New Delhi: "Only 13 per cent of High Court judges are women while 35% of women judges are at the district court level. Goa has the highest number of women judges with 70% of women at subordinate courts, followed by Meghalaya and Nagaland at 63% each, according to the India Justice Report (IJR) 2022.
The report also said that the share of women across the justice system in police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid is one out of 10 is a woman. "While the overall share of women in the police force is about 11.75 per cent, in the officer ranks it is still lower at eight per cent. Only 13 per cent of High Court judges and 35 per cent of Subordinate Court judges are women.
Among prison staff, they are 13 per cent. A majority of states have increased the share of women panel lawyers. Nationally, the share has increased from 18 to 25 per cent," it said. The report points out that "No court works with a full complement of judges except the High Court of Sikkim and the district courts in Chandigarh."
It said prisons are over-occupied at over 130 per cent and more than two-thirds of the prisoners (77.1 per cent) are awaiting the completion of investigation or trial. The IJR said most of the states have not fully utilised funds given to them by the Centre and their increase in spending on the police, prisons and judiciary has not kept pace with the overall increase in the state expenditure.
The report highlights the increase in the presence of Women Help Desks across the states in the respective police stations. "As of January 2022, 72 per cent of police stations across the country reported having these special facilities. Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and West Bengal have Women Help Desks in all their police stations. Bihar has Women Help Desks in 47 per cent of all police stations" while "Meghalaya has no Women Help Desk," the report said.
"Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, too, have Women Help Desks in less than 50 per cent of their police stations. Twenty-one states and UTs report having set up Women Help Desks inside all police stations in urban areas while in rural areas only 17 have", it said.
In the realm of justice delivery, four southern states marked their presence, including Karnataka at the top, followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, says the report. The report highlights the deteriorating situation of the prison system adding that "Only 22 per cent of the prison population are convicts while 77 per cent are undertrials."
The report found that the number of undertrials is the highest since 2010, having nearly doubled from 2.4 lahks in 2010 to 4.3 lakh in 2021, an increase of 78 per cent. "Except Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh, the undertrial population of all states and Union Territories (UTs) exceed 60 per cent," the report added.
Only Arunachal Pradesh reports having CCTV cameras in all 14 spots (as directed by the apex court) in all its 24 police stations while only eight states/UTs, which include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Ladakh, Tripura, Karnataka, Delhi and Goa reported having night vision-equipped CCTVs, reveals the 2022 India Justice Report (IJR).
