We need reforms that'll ensure justice prevails

The latest India Justice Report' lays bare how far behind we are on satisfying basic ideals of the rule of law. To uphold this promise, judicial and police reforms in India are a must

The rule of law is integral to a just order. As an idea, its institution sets the modernity of equal rights apart from the inequity of being at the mercy of someone’s whim. What we institute to govern our lives, however, needs a constant vigil. The India Justice Report of 2022 released by Tata Trusts this week offers a wealth of data which aids that cause by laying bare the inadequacies of our justice system. Covid slowed India’s pace of case-clearance by courts, with the result that our pile-up rose from 41 million in 2020 to 49 million in 2022. We had 5.6 million pending for longer than a decade, with 190,000 for over 30 years. The judiciary remains acutely short of capacity. With 20,093 judges at work, we barely have 15 for every million Indians, less than a third of the 50 recommended by the Law Commission in 1987. Meanwhile, Indian prisons saw a sharp rise in overcrowding to about 30 extra inmates in 2021 for every 100 they were built to hold. Only a minority were convicts, as 77% of them were under-trials yet to be found either guilty or innocent, up from about 69% two years earlier. This figure should weigh upon our conscience. Not only does it make “bail not jail" sound hollow as the norm, since some prisoners surely deserve to be freed, it also speaks of apathy to their plight. Unless there’s a good reason, accusations alone shouldn’t get people locked up, especially not when so many laws allow false charges a wide berth. We cannot ignore this truth of justice: If it isn’t meted out fairly, it doesn’t exist.