After Reading This Article You Can Solve This UPSC Mains Model Question:
Critically analyse the impact of underfunding of judiciary, legal aid, and prisons on the constitutional promise of access to justice in India.15 Marks (GS-2, Governance)
Context
The Union Budget 2026-27 lacks targeted financial allocation to improve justice outcomes. An analysis of the budgets across 11 high-GDP States (e.g., Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, UP) reveals deep structural skewness, showing that India continues to view justice through the lens of enforcement rather than adjudication.
Status of Justice Spending in India
- State-Level Expenditure: 11 high-GDP states spend an average of 4.6% of their total budgets on the collective justice system (Police, Prisons, Judiciary, Legal Aid).
- Global Comparison: While Europe spends approximately 0.31% of its GDP on justice (excluding police), India’s judiciary budgets account for less than 1% of total State budgets despite unprecedented caseloads.
- Per-Capita Asymmetry:
- Police: ₹1,500 (Nationally) | ₹1,616 (Average across the 11 high-GDP states).
- Prisons: ₹150.
- Judiciary: ₹450.
- Free Legal Aid: ₹9.
Pillar-Wise Structural Deficits
A. Policing: Over-emphasis on Enforcement & Surveillance
- The Skew: Policing devours over 80% of all justice-related allocations across major states.
- Quality Deficit: Most funding goes toward salaries and administrative firefighting. Strategic quality-enhancing areas are starved:
- Training: Receives less than 1.5% of the police budget.
- Forensics: Receives roughly 1%.
B. Judiciary: Capacity Starvation vs. Massive Caseloads
- Subordinate Courts Crisis: The 3,500 district courts handle 7 times the caseload of High Courts but receive only 3 times the budget.
- Judge-to-Population Deficit: The actual bench strength stands at 15 judges per 10 lakh population, heavily missing the 1987 Law Commission recommendation of 50 judges per 10 lakh.
- Administrative Deficit: For every judicial position, 5–9 secretarial and clerical staff are needed but remain unfulfilled. Training accounts for just 1% of the judicial budget.
C. Prisons: Overcrowding & Low Priority
- Underfunded: Prisons account for a minuscule 0.14% of State budgets.
- Infrastructural Strain: Average occupancy stands at 137% in high-GDP states (higher than the national average of 131%).
- Human Resource Crisis: Prisons operate with at least 30% vacancies, and only ₹0.23 out of every ₹100 spent is directed toward staff training.
D. Legal Aid & Independent Oversight: The Weakest Links
- Legal Aid: Receives the least funding (₹9 per capita), crippling the primary vehicle meant to ensure Article 39A (Equal Justice and Free Legal Aid) for low-income and marginalized groups.
- State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs): Paralyzed by a financial starvation of a mere 80 paisa per capita and human resource deficits exceeding 40% vacancies.
Government Initiatives
- e-Courts Mission Mode Project (Phase III): It aims to digitize the justice system by creating paperless courts, expanding cloud data storage, and integrating AI for case pendency forecasting.
- Tele-Law Scheme: It provides mainstream legal aid to the grassroots level by connecting marginalized citizens with panel lawyers through video conferencing via Common Service Centres (CSCs).
- Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Judicial Infrastructure: It provides financial assistance to States and UTs to construct modern court halls, residential units for judges, and citizen amenities like waiting halls.
- Nyaya Vikas Portal: It acts as an online monitoring system to track the real-time implementation and fund release status of judicial infrastructure projects across the country.
- National Campaign (Hamara Samvidhan Hamara Samman): It enhances legal awareness and instills constitutional values among citizens through local sub-campaigns like Sabko Nyaya Har Ghar Nyaya.
Implications of Starved Legal Aid & Oversight
- Makes justice a luxury: When legal aid is underfunded, quality legal representation becomes accessible only to those who can afford to pay for it.
- Denies rights to the marginalized: Low-income individuals bear the heaviest burden, facing extended jail time simply due to a lack of a timely defense.
- Fails constitutional promises: A weak legal aid setup directly undercuts Article 39A, which guarantees free legal assistance for all citizens.
- Paralyzes human rights watchdogs: Starving State Human Rights Commissions with just 80 paisa per capita leaves them unable to look into serious systemic abuses.
- Leaves errors unchecked: Large vacancy rates (40%) in oversight bodies mean institutional wrongdoings slip by without any independent correction.
Way Forward
- Balance the funding pipeline: Shift financial allocations away from a pure enforcement model by actively channeling more funds into court infrastructure, prison reforms, and free legal aid.
- Fill vacancies systematically: Launch time-bound recruitment drives to scale up judge strength closer to the Law Commission’s target of 50 per 10 lakh population, along with necessary clerical staff.
- Invest heavily in human capital: Drastically raise budgetary spending on staff training and scientific forensics to ensure high-quality investigations and professional judicial management.
- Institutionalize legal aid budgets: Protect vulnerable citizens by setting up inflation-indexed, mandatory funding blocks specifically for free legal defense and legal awareness drives.
- Revive human rights watchdogs: Provide adequate, independent per-capita funding to State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) and eliminate vacancies to restore effective independent oversight.
Conclusion
A constitutionally recalibrated justice budget is vital to unlock India’s economic potential. Investing in tech-driven adjudication and people-centric legal ecosystems will transition governance from basic enforcement to a futuristic, rights-respecting democracy.
