Context: Union Budget 2026-27 shows no targeted funding to improve justice outcomes in India. The Rule of law remains critically undervalued despite its direct link to economic growth.
Key Data: Justice Expenditure In India
| Component | Per Capita Spending |
| Police | ₹1,500 |
| Judiciary | ₹450 |
| Prisons | ₹150 |
| Legal Aid | ₹9 |
- 11 high-GDP states spent a cumulative ₹2 lakh crore on justice in 2024-25 thus averaging 4.6% of state budgets.
- Policing alone accounts for over 80% of all justice-related allocations across these 11 states.
- Europe spends only 0.31% of GDP on justice (excluding police) thus indicating India’s skewed priorities.
Component-Wise Analysis
- Police:
- Most funds go toward salaries and administrative firefighting rather than quality improvement.
- Less than 1.5% of police budget is allocated to training and only ~1% to forensics.
- Judiciary:
- Judiciary budgets account for less than 1% of total state budgets despite unprecedented caseloads.
- India has only 15 judges per 10 lakh population against the 1987 Law Commission recommendation of 50.
- 3,500 district courts handle seven times the cases of High Courts but receive only three times the budget.
- Training accounts for just 1% of judiciary budgets.
- For every judge position, 5-9 additional secretarial and clerical positions are needed but remain unfilled.
- Prisons:
- 11 states hold 60% of India’s prisoners with occupancy at 137% in 2023 thus above national average of 131%.
- Prisons account for only 0.14% of state budgets; of every ₹100 spent, only ₹0.23 goes to training.
- Prisons function with at least 30% vacancies across staff positions.
- Legal Aid:
- Receives the least funding of all justice components.
- Primary mechanism through which low-income and marginalised individuals access justice remains severely underfunded.
- Results in limited reach, inadequate representation and delays for the most vulnerable citizens.
Systemic Concerns
- Current architecture is structured primarily around enforcement and surveillance, not access, adjudication or rehabilitation.
- State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) receive a mere 80 paisa per capita despite clear statutory mandate.
- Several SHRCs operate with over 40% vacancies, struggling to perform even basic oversight functions.
- NCRB Crime in India 2024, 26 lakh people arrested, majority from socially and economically marginalised communities.
- System is highly efficient at generating arrests and detentions but inefficient at supplying remedies.
- A justice system is only as strong as its weakest component — currently legal aid and training are the weakest links.
Way Forward
- Recalibrate justice budgets to align with constitutional mandates and evidence-based priorities.
- Urgently increase judge strength toward the Law Commission’s recommended 50 judges per 10 lakh population.
- Significantly enhance allocations for legal aid to ensure access to justice for marginalised communities.
- Increase training budgets across police, judiciary and prisons from the current negligible levels.
- Strengthen and adequately fund SHRCs to perform meaningful independent oversight functions.
- Shift justice architecture from enforcement-centric to access and rehabilitation-centric model.
Conclusion
- India’s justice budget reflects a system efficient at generating cases but not delivering remedies. A people-centred, constitutionally grounded recalibration of justice spending is urgently needed. Without adequate investment in all pillars of justice, rule of law and economic growth will both remain compromised.
