Karnataka is the top performer in justice delivery among Indian states with a population above 10 million, according to the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025, released on April 15. Ranks are attributed based on a ten-point score system across four parameters – police, prisons, judiciary, and legal aid. While Karnataka has a composite score of 6.78 out of 10, followed by Andhra Pradesh (6.32), Telangana (6.15), Kerala (6.09), and Tamil Nadu (5.62), West Bengal ranked the lowest with a score of 3.63.
For the ranking, states are categorised into two groups: large and mid-sized states with a population above 10 million, and small states with a population up to 10 million. Among the smaller states, Sikkim tops the list, while Goa is at the bottom.
The Report is collaboratively put together by Bengaluru-based think tank DAKSH, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and TISS-Prayas. It tracks improvements and deficits in each state's capacity to deliver justice based on quantitative analysis of budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity.
While Karnataka maintained consistent scores across all pillars, other states displayed mixed performances. Telangana, for example, scored well in police and legal aid but fared poorly in the judiciary ranking.
The report also tracks improvements in the respective areas, comparing scores based on 68 indicators across the four pillars to the previous report, which was released in 2022. Bihar showed the most improvement, with progress on 47 out of 68 indicators. Odisha and Chhattisgarh followed with 41 improvements each. However, Telangana and Tamil Nadu come at the bottom of the list with improvements only on 34 and 30 indicators, respectively.
Diversity in the system still lags
The diversity score in the IJR is derived from 17 indicators such as the representation of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), as well as women's participation across different justice institutions. Among the large and mid-sized states, Karnataka leads with a diversity score of 7.26 out of 10, followed closely by Andhra Pradesh (6.67), and Tamil Nadu (6.55).
However, the Report found that SC and ST representation remains particularly weak in the judiciary. Most states fall short of filling their reserved quotas for these categories in the subordinate judiciary, even though OBC reservations are better implemented.
Women in justice
The IJT says that women make up only 8% of police officers on average, with 17 states having less than 10% of women in the police force. The judiciary has better gender diversity at lower levels, but High Courts continue to see disproportionately low female representation.
Further, women's participation remains dismally low across police and prison services, and while there is more representation in the legal aid sector, leadership roles like DLSA secretaries still lack female presence. Compared to IJR 2022, 22 states/UTs have marginally improved representation of women in their police force, says the 2025 Report.
The Report predicts that Andhra Pradesh and Bihar could have 33% of women in police within three years if the current trends continue. But for Jharkhand and Tripura, the wait could stretch to over 200 years, and for Andaman and Nicobar islands, it would take several generations to meet this quota.
According to the report, one is most likely to find women as paralegal volunteers in the justice system and least likely to find them as Supreme Court judges.
In the police force, 13% are women constables, 12% are IPS officers, and only 8% are officers.
In the judiciary, 38% are subordinate court judges, 14% are High Court judges, and 6% are Supreme Court judges.
14% of prison staff are women.
In the Legal Aid sector, 31% of secretaries are women, 28% are panel lawyers, and 42% are paralegal volunteers.
Courts still far from the judge-to-population benchmark
Despite repeated calls to bolster judicial infrastructure, India continues to fall short of the recommended 50 judges per million population benchmark set by the Law Commission back in 1987. According to IJR 2025, no state or Union Territory has achieved this target. Among the large and mid-sized states, Punjab leads with 23.2 judges per million, followed by Uttarakhand (22.7) and Madhya Pradesh (19.1).
However, several populous states like Andhra Pradesh (8.7) and Uttar Pradesh (11.2) continue to languish near the bottom. Karnataka has 18.2 judges per million, and Kerala has 15.6 judges per million.
The gap is much more stark when considering subordinate courts, where the bulk of India’s pending cases lie. This severe shortfall in judicial personnel contributes directly to delays, mounting case backlogs, and denial of timely justice, says the Report.
In some small states like Sikkim and Mizoram, the ratio fares better due to lower populations, but even these do not meet the benchmark.
This is also directly correlated to the burden of old pending cases, which remains high across all states. In 22 of 25 large states, more than 25% of cases in subordinate courts have been pending for over three years. At the High Court level, over 51% of cases nationwide have been pending for more than five years.
Mediation and disability access
The IJR also highlights the promise of mediation as a time-efficient and consensus-driven alternative to litigation as India continues to grapple with over 5.2 crore pending cases. It says that while the Mediation Act, 2023 is a significant step in formalising the mediation framework—introducing online platforms, enforceable settlements, and community mediation—its impact has been limited by patchy implementation and capacity constraints.
Nationally, there are around 1,600 mediation centres and 20,000 trained mediators, but deployment remains low, especially in states with limited institutional support. Only 22% of court-referred mediation cases were successfully settled in 2023–24. The Report calls for faster operationalisation of the Mediation Council of India, better training and public reporting, and a greater role for private and community mediators to expand the system’s reach.
The Report also delves into disability and access to justice, finding that despite strong legal mandates under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the justice system remains largely inaccessible.
The judiciary fares slightly better, with 17 High Courts having set up Accessibility Committees, although only one publishes regular data. The police and prison systems, however, show poor inclusion, with exemptions from reservation policies, limited infrastructure for disabled inmates, and no centralised crime data under the Disabilities Act.
The Report urges urgent steps to close the data gap, update prison manuals, and implement uniform accessibility standards as directed by the courts.