Police, judiciary, prisons, legal aid: Areas of improvement, concern in Gujarat

Sponsored by India’s oldest philanthropic organization, founded in 1892 by Jamsetji Tata, the 146-page study, “India Justice Report”, carried out by well-known civil society experts from the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, has sought to rank 18 major states on police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid. A note on Gujarat ranking:

Caste reservation in police

According to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BP&RD), there should be reservation among police officers in Gujarat to the tune of 7% for SCs, 15% for STs and 27% for OBCs. Data for the last two years shows that it’s meeting its SC benchmark, but not its ST and OBC benchmarks. Further, while it has improved in filling ST vacancies, it has regressed in filing OBC vacancies.

Increasing the share of women in police force

In 2016 and 2017, Gujarat has taken significant strides in improving the representation of women in its police force. From 4% in 2015, the share of women has increased to 7.2% in 2016 and 10.5% in 2017. Assuming other states in the set of 18 large and mid-sized states remained where they were, this would have resulted in Gujarat rising from rank 9 to rank 3 on this metric. It needs to sustain this momentum.

Judges’ vacancies

Gujarat has pressing levels of judge vacancies in both its High Court and subordinate courts. In 2016-17, our review period, it was 39% in the High Court and subordinate courts. In 2017-18, the latest data available, the High Court number has increased to 42%, while the subordinate court number has dropped to 27%.
This should be also seen in the context that, as of August 2017, the average pendency was 9.5 years in the state’s subordinate courts and 3.3 years in its High Court. In the 5-year period, Gujarat has been improving on filling vacancies and reducing workload of judges. It needs to do more along those lines.

Cases in subordinate courts

As of August 2018, about 27% of case in Gujarat subordinate courts had been pending for more than 5 years. Among the set of 18 large and mid-sized states in the India Justice Report, this was the fifth-highest. The data also shows that, even with improvements in filling judge vacancies and clearance rates, it would take an average of 9.3 years to settle a case in Gujarat subordinate courts.

Women judges in its subordinate courts

Across India, women judges have a marginal presence at the High Court level in most states. But in subordinate courts, they are present a whole lot more. Gujarat, however, is a laggard on this count. As of July 2017, only 15% of its subordinate court judges were women. This was the third-lowest in the set 18 large and mid-sized states and the fifth-lowest in the country. The average for the set of 18 large and mid-sized states is 29%.

Prison staff and prison cadre vacancies

As of December 2016, our review period, Gujarat had vacancy levels of 38% in prison officers and 32% in prison cadre staff. In December 2017, it slid further for prison officers (39%), but improved to 25% for cadre staff. Still, Gujarat could do better, given that the state’s prisons are filled to capacity—its occupancy rate was 97% in December 2017.

Undertrial population

Nearly two-thirds of inmates in Gujarat’s prisons are undertrials. After reducing between 2009 and 2012, this value has constantly hovered in the 63-65% range. Its total inmates are increasing and the number of undertrials is keeping pace with that increase.

Coverage of legal services clinics

Both in villages and in jails, legal services clinics in Gujarat are servicing a larger catchment than is ideally prescribed. In villages, against the average norm of 6 villages, each clinic is servicing, on average, 37 villages. Likewise, against the standard of having a clinic in each jail, each clinic is servicing 2 jails.

Usage of Lok Adalats to settle pre-litigation cases

Lok Adalats are proving to be an effective forum to settle pre-litigation cases, and some states are using it actively to route such cases to them. Among the large and mid-sized states, Gujarat is ranked only 12th in terms of share of pre-litigation cases among all cases settled by Lok Adalats, with a figure of 31%. It can increase this further, and thus avoid further burdening of its courts.

Allocation and spending on pillars of justice

For every rupee that Gujarat has been adding to its budget, the increase in its spending on police, prisons and judiciary has not been not keeping pace. In the five-year period between 2011-12 and 2015-16, the average increase in how much Gujarat spent on each of the three fundamental pillars—police, prisons and judiciary—trailed the increase in the total amount spent by the state. The situation was especially bad in prisons.

—
Click HERE to read full report

Comments

Eight years of empowering tribal communities through water initiatives in Chhattisgarh

By Gazala Paul* In the heart of Chhattisgarh, amidst the echoes of tribal life, a transformative journey has unfolded over the past eight years. The Samerth organization has diligently worked to elevate the lives of indigenous communities in the Kawardha district through the project, "Enabling Baiga Community to access safe drinking water."

Regretful: Kapil Dev retired not leaving Indian cricket with integrity he upheld

By Harsh Thakor Kapil Dev scaled heights as an entertainer and a player upholding the spirit of the game almost unparalleled in his era. In his time he was cricket’s ultimate mascot of sportsmanship On his day Kapil could dazzle in all departments to turn the tempo of game in the manner of a Tsunami breaking in. He radiated r energy, at a level rarely scaled in his era on a cricket field. Few ever blended aggression with artistry so comprehenisively. Although fast medium, he could be as daunting with the ball as the very best, with his crafty outswinger, offcutter, slower ball and ball that kicked from a good length. Inspite of bowling on docile tracks on the subcontinent, Kapil had 434 scalps, with virtually no assistance. I can never forget how he obtained pace and movement on flat pancakes, trapping the great Vivian Richards in Front or getting Geoff Boycott or Zaheer Abbas caught behind. No paceman carried the workload of his team’s bowling attack on his shoulders in his eras muc

Martin Crowe played instrumental role in making New Zealand a force in world cricket

By Harsh Thakor* Late Martin Crowe was the perfect manifestation of how mere figures could not convey or do justice to the true merit of a batsman. Crowe was arguably the most complete or majestic batsmen of his era or the ultimate embodiment of batting perfection, or the classical batsmen. He perished 7 years ago, due to a rare and aggressive form of cancer, follicular lymphoma, which originated in 2012. In September, we celebrated his 60th birthday but sadly he left for his heavenly abode.

How the slogan Jai Bhim gained momentum as movement of popularity and revolution

By Dr Kapilendra Das* India is an incomprehensible plural country loaded with diversities of religions, castes, cultures, languages, dialects, tribes, societies, costumes, etc. The Indians have good manners/etiquette (decent social conduct, gesture, courtesy, politeness) that build healthy relationships and take them ahead to life. In many parts of India, in many situations, and on formal occasions, it is common for people of India to express and exchange respect, greetings, and salutation for which we people usually use words and phrases like- Namaskar, Namaste, Pranam, Ram Ram, Jai Ram ji, Jai Sriram, Good morning, shubha sakal, Radhe Radhe, Jai Bajarangabali, Jai Gopal, Jai Jai, Supravat, Good night, Shuvaratri, Jai Bhole, Salaam walekam, Walekam salaam, Radhaswami, Namo Buddhaya, Jai Bhim, Hello, and so on.

1982-83 Bombay textile strike played major role in shaping working class movement

By Harsh Thakor On January 18th, 1982 the working class movement commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Textile Workers Strike that lasted for 18 months, till July 1983. It was landmark event that played a major role in shaping the working class movement. With more than 2.5 lakh workers from 65 textile mills joining in this strike for almost two years, this strike became one of the most significant strikes in terms of scale and duration All democrats should applaud the mill workers’ united battle, and their unflinching resilience an death defying courage continues to serve as a model for contemporary working-class movements. Many middle class persons harboured opinions that the Textile workers were pampered or were a labour aristocracy, ignorant of how they were denied wages to provide for basic necessities. The Great Bombay Textile Strike is notably one of the most defining movements in the working class struggles in Post-independent India. Bombay’s textile industry flourished in

Towards 2024: Time for ‘We the People of India’ to wake up before it is too late

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* It is Constitution Day once again! We, the people of India, gratefully remember 26 November 1949 when the Constitution of India was passed and adopted by the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly comprised women and men of distinction, who were able to represent the heart and soul of the people of India without fear or favour. They gave of their best, so that we may a visionary Constitution, which would be the mainstay for and of democracy in India!

Ceasefire a tactical victory for Palestinian resistance, protests intensify across globe

By Harsh Thakor* The Zionist leadership and Netanyahu’s government were compelled to concede the defeat of their first attempt after almost 50 days of daily fighting in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu was forced to concede that he was unsuccessful in suppressing the Palestinian Resistance; and that the release of the prisoners was only plausible because they accepted Hamas’ terms.

Odisha leadership crisis deepens: CM engages retired babus to oversee depts' work

By Sudhansu R Das Over decades, Odisha has lost much of its crop diversity, fertile agriculture land, water bodies, employment potential, handicraft and handloom skills etc. The state has failed to strike a balance between the urban and rural sector growth; this leads to the migration of villagers to the urban areas leading to collapse of the urban infrastructures and an acute labor shortage in rural areas. A large number of educated, skilled and unskilled Odia people have migrated to other states for higher education, quality jobs and for earning livelihood which plummet the efficiency level of government departments. Utmost transparency in the recruitment and promotion in the state government departments will improve governance mechanisms in the state. "No near and dear one approach" in governance mechanisms can only achieve inclusive growth for the state on payment basis. This is a moral hazard. When so many educated young people seek employment outside the

Massive tropical deforestation: Big finance's $307 billion go to forest-risk commodities

A note on report by Forests & Finance coalition -- Rainforest Action Network, TuK Indonesia, Profundo, Amazon Watch, Repórter Brasil, BankTrack, Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Friends of the Earth US: *** A new report released on ‘Finance Day’ at COP28 by the Forests & Finance Coalition , provides a comprehensive look into the role big finance plays in driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change and human rights abuses in tropical forest regions. The report reveals that since the Paris Agreement, banks have pumped over $307 billion into high risk forestry and agriculture companies linked to tropical deforestation, proving that the policies of major global banks and investors are failing to prevent continued widespread forest and biodiversity loss.

20% of Indian businesses have no emission plan in place despite climate emergency: Report

By Jag Jivan New research underlines urgent need for strategies and transition plans to combat climate change, remain successful and meet stakeholder expectations.

Search This Blog