More than 50% vacancies among police officers,  Rajasthan ranks 14th overall, reveals India Justice Report 2025

Jaipur, April 15, 2025.

The 2025 India Justice Report (IJR), India’s only ranking of states on delivery of justice in the country, released today, ranks Rajasthan 14th overall (2022:15th), with it improving the most in Judiciary (17th in 2022 to 6th this year) among the 18 Large and Mid-sized states (with populations of over one crore each).

The top overall position was retained by Karnataka, followed by Andhra Pradesh, climbing from fifth in 2022 to second, Telangana (2022 ranking: 3rd), and Kerala (2022 ranking: 6th). Among the seven small states (with populations less than one crore each), Sikkim (2022: 1st) ranked first, followed by Himachal Pradesh (2022: 6th) and Arunachal Pradesh (2022: 2nd).

The India Justice Report (IJR) was first initiated by Tata Trusts, with the first ever ranking published in 2019. This is the fourth edition of the report, in collaboration with partners including the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives, IJR’s data partner.

Through a rigorous 24-month quantitative research, the IJR 2025, similar to the previous three, has tracked the performance of states in capacitating their Justice delivery structures to effectively deliver mandated services. Based on the latest official statistics from authoritative government sources, it brings together otherwise siloed data on the four pillars of Justice delivery – Police, Judiciary, Prisons, and Legal Aid. Each pillar was analysed through the prism of budgets, human resources, workload, diversity, infrastructure, and trends (intention to improve over a five-year period), against the state’s own declared standards and benchmarks. This edition also separately assesses the capacity of the 25 State Human Rights Commissions (see SHRC brief for more) and consists of essays on mediation and access to justice for persons with disabilities.

Discussing the India Justice Report, Justice (Retd.) Madan B. Lokurcommented, “The punishing process of accessing justice begins with the very first encounter an individual has with the system. With our failure to properly equip and train frontline justice providers—police stations, legal aid actors including paralegal volunteers and district courts—we fracture public trust. These institutions are intended to embody our commitment to equal justice. The strength of our entire justice framework rests on these critical first points of contact. The fourth edition of the India Justice Report points out that improvements remain few and far between in the absence of adequate attention given to resources. Alas, the burden continues to remain on the individual seeking justice, and not the state to provide it.”

Ms. Maja Daruwala, Chief Editor, India Justice Report, highlighted, “As India moves forward into a hundred years of being a democratic, rule of law nation, the promise of rule of law and equal rights will remain hollow unless underwritten by a reformed justice system. Reform is not optional. It is urgent. A well-resourced responsive justice system is a constitutional imperative that must be experienced as an everyday reality available to every citizen.”

Rajasthan’s Ranks: Pillar Wise

Rajasthan Judiciary: Filling of Vacancies Lead to Welcome Rise

The Rajasthan High Court reduced its vacancies among judges from 48% in 2022 to 34% in 2025, whilst improving case clearance rate as well. The case clearance rate of the district courts crossed 100% for the first time since 2016-17.

Between 2015-16 and 2022-23, the state nearly doubled its per capita spend (Rs. 96 to Rs. 197). Women make about 42% of the judges in the state’s district courts.

Police: Persistent Increase in Officer Vacancies

Officer vacancies rise through the years, from 37.3% in 2020 to 51.8% in 2023.  The share of women in police is at 10.9%, which is the highest among its other Hindi speaking counterparts like Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

91% of the state’s police stations have at least one CCTV camera. However, there has been a slight reduction in the share of police stations that have women helpdesks (from 99% to 93%).

Prisons: 37% of State’s Prisons Do Not Have Video Conferencing Facilities

While the state has improved its annual spend per inmate (Rs. 17,735 in 2021-22 to Rs. 23,772 in 2022-23) and lowered vacancies among medical officers (from 35% in 2021 to 15% in 2022), its correctional staff vacancy continues to be very high at 87.5%.

37% of the state’s prisons do not have video conferencing facilities, the worst among all large states.

Legal Aid: Consistently Poor Performance Drops Rajasthan to Last Rank

The State continued to perform poorly in most indicators, leading to its last position among all large states. The number of Paralegal volunteers (PLVs) per lakh population has also seen a consistent decline over the years;  6 PLVS were available for every lakh population in 2019 but now the number has dropped to below 2. It also has the lowest share of women among PLVs (26.7%).

There are only 100 legal services clinics established across the 146 prisons in the state.

The IJR 2025 has reiterated both immediate and foundational corrections. It has flagged urgent filling of vacancies and increased representation. To effect irreversible change, it has exhorted that Justice delivery be designated as an essential service.

Sources:

1. Police:Data on Police Organisation 2023, Bureau of Police Research and Development
2. Prisons: Prison Statistics India 2022, National Crime Records Bureau
3. Judiciary: 2024 & 2025- National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), Court News, Supreme Court of India; eCourts Services; Websites and annual reports of High Courts, Department of Justice
4. Legal aid: 2024, Statistics from National Legal Services Authority

ANNEXURE I:

OVERALL NATIONAL FINDINGS: AT A GLANCE

The ranking of the 18 large-and mid-sized states is:

The ranking of the seven small states is: