India continues to grapple with a serious shortage in judicial personnel, according to the 2025 India Justice Report released on Tuesday. The report, which evaluates the performance and capacity of the Indian judiciary, revealed that there are only 15 judges per million people in the country. This is significantly lower than the Law Commission of India’s 1987 recommendation of 50 judges per million population. With a population of approximately 1.4 billion, India currently has 21,285 judges, pointing to a justice system burdened by understaffing and mounting case backlogs.

Initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019, this fourth edition of the report was published in collaboration with several research and policy organisations, including the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives. The report seeks to track progress and highlight deficiencies across the judicial systems of Indian states.

Heavy Workload and Judge Vacancies Add to the Crisis

The report shed light on the extensive workload borne by India’s judiciary. In district courts, each judge is managing an average of 2,200 cases, indicating the immense pressure on the limited judicial workforce. The situation is particularly severe in the Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, where judges face an average caseload of 15,000 cases each.

High courts across the country continue to struggle with staffing issues, with 33% of sanctioned judge positions remaining vacant. Although there has been a slight improvement, with vacancies down to 21% in 2025, the workload remains daunting. “Nationally, in the district courts, the average workload is 2,200 cases per judge,” the report noted.

Underrepresentation and Gender Disparity in the Judiciary

The report also examined the composition of the judiciary, pointing out continued underrepresentation of marginalised communities and women. Between 2017 and 2025, the share of women judges in the district judiciary increased from 30% to 38.3%, and in high courts, it rose from 11.4% to 14%. However, gender disparity remains stark at the higher levels of the judiciary.

“There is a higher share of women judges in the district courts as compared to the high courts and the Supreme Court. Currently, there is only one woman chief justice across the 25 high courts,” the report said.

Representation from Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) remains low. Only 5% of district court judges are from STs, while 14% belong to SCs. Of the 698 high court judges appointed since 2018, just 37 belong to SC or ST categories. The Other Backward Classes (OBC) representation in the judiciary stands at 25.6%, indicating the need for more inclusive appointments.

Lower Vacancies But High Pendency

Delhi’s district judiciary stands out with a lower vacancy rate of 11% and the highest proportion of women judges at 45%. Still, challenges remain. In 2024, each district court judge in Delhi handled 2,023 cases, up from 1,551 in 2017, though still below the national average. Despite this, Delhi recorded one of the lowest case clearance rates (CCR) in the country at 78% in 2024. The capital’s district courts achieved a 100% CCR only once between 2017 and 2024, in the year 2023.

High Case Pendency and Delayed Justice

Pendency of cases remains a serious concern across both high courts and district courts. The report stated, “Barring Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura, one in every two cases has been pending for more than three years in all high courts.” Furthermore, at the district court level, over 40% of cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal have remained unresolved for more than three years.

In Delhi, the situation is even more severe: one in every five cases has been pending for over five years, and two per cent of cases have not seen resolution for more than a decade.

Legal Aid and Judicial Infrastructure Underfunded

Another key concern raised in the report was the inadequate financial allocation for the justice system. The national per capita expenditure on legal aid was a mere ₹6.46 per year, while the judiciary overall received ₹182 per capita annually. The report emphasized that no state allocates more than one per cent of its total annual budget to the judiciary, highlighting a glaring gap in resource allocation that severely hampers judicial functioning.

Urgent Reforms Needed to Strengthen India’s Judicial System

The 2025 India Justice Report presents a comprehensive and data-backed call to action. With glaring gaps in judge-to-population ratio, overwhelming caseloads, high vacancies, underrepresentation of marginalised communities, and inadequate funding, the Indian judiciary is in urgent need of systemic reform. The report advocates immediate measures to fill judicial vacancies, enhance inclusivity, and increase budgetary support for a more efficient and accessible justice delivery system. Only through foundational corrections can India ensure timely and equitable justice for its citizens.