fourth India Justice report 2025
♦ The fourth India Justice report 2025 was released on 2025 April 15. ♦ According to this, there are only 15 judges per million population in the country, a far cry from the Law Commission's recommendation of 50 judges per million population. ♦ In contrast, the USA has 150 judges per million population, according to a January 2024 New York Times news report, and Europe had an average of 220 judges per million in 2022, according to an October 2024 Council of Europe report. ♦ The report was initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019 and the fourth edition of the report was in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS-Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives. Highlights: ♦ While the vacancies in high courts stood at 33 percent of the total sanctioned strength, the report claimed 21 percent vacancies in 2025, indicating a high workload for the existing judges. ♦ Nationally, in the district courts, the average workload is 2,200 cases per judge. In the Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, the caseload per judge amounts to 15,000. ♦ The overall share of women judges, the report said, in the district judiciary increased from 30 per cent in 2017 to 38.3 per cent, and it increased from 11.4 per cent to 14 per cent in the high courts in 2025.