Sikkim best in criminal justice system in northeast, Assam spent the least on police in 2021-22

Sikkim ranked 1st among small states in the Northeast's criminal justice system on their capacity to deliver justice to citizens, claimed India Justice Report 2022, which was released on April 4.

The third India Justice Report analyses the changes – both positive and negative – in India’s justice delivery system across four parameters: police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.

 

States	Overall Ranking	Police	Prison	Judiciary	Legal Aid
Sikkim	1	1	4	1	1
Arunachal Pradesh	2	2	1	4	7
Tripura	3	7	5	2	4
Meghalaya	4	3	6	5	3
Mizoram	5	4	3	3	6
Assam	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Manipur	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nagaland	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

 

*Assam, Manipur and Nagaland come under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act states and hence are not ranked

The report uses statistics to highlight whether states are living up to standards set nationally and internationally.

Low budgets – or budgets that are not spent – too mean that the system is not operating at the capacity needed or planned for.

Narrowing down to the northeastern states staff vacancies were found to be an issue across these arms of all northeastern states.

Also Read: Assam: Opposition expresses apprehension of 'police raj', invasion of privacy through bill on CCTV installation

Northeast India comprises Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

With a total geographical area of 26,2179 sq km and a total population of 5.16 crores, it is served by 838 police stations, 5 high courts, 101 district courts and 551 legal aid clinics.

It has a total of 79 jails, 20 correctional staff and 129 medical staff. Let's take a glance at key numbers across the seven northeastern states including Assam.

Vacancy in the police force and judiciary system

Average judge vacancy: Subordinate court- 19.2 per cent, high courts- 4.4 per cent.

Average vacancies in prisons: Correctional staff: 5 states - Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim, have no sanctioned positions for correctional staff.

Medical officers- 51.7 per cent while medical staff stands at 31.3 per cent.

Average vacancies in police- Constable vacancies- are 18.23 per cent and officer vacancies stand at 27.5 per cent.

The average share of women in the judiciary- The average share of women in police- is 7.35 per cent while women judge in the Subordinate court- at 46.4 per cent, while women judges in High Court stand at 15.7 per cent.

Human resource crisis in the legal system across the Northeast

In Judiciary there are no high court judge vacancies in the high court of Gauhati and Sikkim and 40 per cent vacancies each in the high court of Tripura and Manipur.

In subordinate courts, Meghalaya has 48.5 per cent of judge vacancies while Tripura has 10.7 per cent. Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, and Sikkim have more than 25 per cent vacancies in all subordinate courts. More than 10 per cent of staff vacancies are seen in the high courts of Sikkim, Meghalaya and Manipur.

In Police as of January 2022, constable vacancies are highest in Mizoram at 34.2 per cent and lowest in Nagaland at -2 per cent. Officer vacancies range from 40 per cent in Tripura to -4.2 per cent in Sikkim. Except for Sikkim and Nagaland, all states have more than 20 per cent officer vacancies. The share of officers in civil police varies from 27.4 per cent in Mizoram to 13.6% in Arunachal Pradesh.

In Prisons: As of December 2021, the highest officer vacancy is in Tripura (65.6 per cent) and the lowest in Nagaland (0%). All states except Nagaland have more than 25 per cent vacancies at the officer level. Mizoram, Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya have more than 25 per cent cadre staff vacancies. None of the states has any sanctioned and actual correctional staff except for Assam and Nagaland which have 10.5 per cent and 33.3 per cent vacancies respectively. Medical officer vacancies range from 0 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh to 100 per cent in Mizoram and 74 per cent in Assam.

In Legal Aid: As of June 2022, no posts for DLSA secretaries are sanctioned in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Manipur. While Assam has filled all its vacancies. None of the states except Arunachal Pradesh has more than 30 Para Legal Volunteers (PLV) per lakh population; Assam has just 3 PLV and Sikkim has around 30. Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum (110 PLVs per lakh population).

Shortfall in infrastructure

All northeastern states have a shortfall of court halls for their judges. The highest shortfall is in Meghalaya (46.5 per cent) followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram at (36.6 per cent and (35.4 per cent) respectively.

As of January 2022, 3.2 lakh population is served by a single police station in rural Assam while in Sikkim only 20, 111. In urban areas, Manipur (60412) and Nagaland (51684) serve the maximum population per police station and the least is in Arunachal Pradesh (8733). Manipur has no police station with CCTV cameras while in Assam all police stations have at least one CCTV.

While Arunachala and Tripura have women helpdesks in all police stations and Meghalaya.

As of December 2021, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Assam have more than 100% prison occupancy and all jails in Sikkim, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have V-C facilities.

In terms of legal Aid for the year 2021-22, Assam has the highest number of villages per legal service clinic at 162, while Tripura has just 5.5 villages.

Workload in the judiciary, police, prison and legal aid: Average number of undertrial cases

Cases taking a long time to come to a conclusion is not a new problem in India; much of this has also been seen as an outcome of judicial vacancies across the country.

The highest percentage of cases pending for more than 5 years is in the High Court of Gauhati stands at 28 per cent, Tripura High Court has only 0.6% of cases pending for more than 5 years.

In subordinate courts, the highest percentage of cases pending for 5-plus years is in Meghalaya, followed by Nagaland. Cases remain pending in the high court of Gauhati for 3.6 years.

Meghalaya Sikkim and Tripura have a case clearance rate of more than 100 per cent in high courts and the rest of the states have 90 per cent and above.

In subordinate courts, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya have above 100% case clearance rate and Nagaland has only 63 per cent.

“Between 2017 and 2021, all states, with the exception of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland showed an increase in undertrial population” the report states.

Share of women high court judges remains low

While the representation of women judges in the subordinate courts is rising, the same cannot be said about the high courts. Between 2020 and 2022, the high courts saw a little less than two percentage point increase in women’s representation.

“Metaphorical of the glass ceiling, there are more women judges at the district court level than at the high court level. Nationally, women account for 35 per cent of the total number of judges at this level. But distribution across states is uneven. Among the small states Goa, with 70 per cent, has the highest percentage, followed by Meghalaya (63 per cent ) and Nagaland (63 per cent) judges respectively,” the report notes.

Allocation to legal system increasing, but no northeastern state used its entire budget allocation

Free legal aid is essential to a well-functioning criminal justice system, particularly in a country like India where access to justice is unequal and severely hindered by the lack of resources.

“The overall utilisation of NALSA funds reduced in 2021–22, and of the Rs. 183 crore allotted to states, Rs. 138 crore remained unutilised.

For 2021-22, Nagaland, Sikkim and Manipur spend more than 100% of their NALSA funds. Tripura only 59%. The state's share in legal aid spending is above 65% for all states except Nagaland. Meghalaya utilizes the least of its state legal aid budget (49%).

A majority of the states utilised more than 50% of their state-sanctioned budget, but this too wasn’t true everywhere.

Meanwhile, in the judiciary for 2021-22, all states except Assam have a per capita spend above the national average (Rs 145.82). Sikkim has the highest per capita spending with Rs. 635, while Assam has the lowest at Rs 99, followed by Manipur (Rs 150).

Police

In police, all states have spent on police per person of more than the national average (Rs 1,150). Nagaland spends the highest on police per person (Rs. 7,989) while Assam spends the least with Rs. 1,169.

Prisons

In the case of prisons for the year 2021-22- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, and Meghalaya spend more than the national average per inmate which is Rs 38,027 while Tripura, Mizoram, and Assam spend less. The highest spending is in Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 90,837) and the lowest in Assam (Rs 20,121).

Police concentration in the northeastern states

In terms of police administration, the highest population per civil police is in Assam with 1306 and the lowest in Manipur with 211 as of January 2022.

As of December 2021, Tripura and Meghalaya have around 100 inmates per officer while Nagaland and Manipur have only around 15. There are no sanctioned correctional staff in 5 out of 8 states. Tripura has 1033 inmates per correctional staff.

Nagaland and Mizoram have no medical officers. Assam has 1 medical officer for 1260 inmates.