From fifth place three years ago to a close second today, Andhra Pradesh has vaulted up the national justice delivery rankings, standing just behind Karnataka in the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025.
The latest edition of the IJR, which assesses the performance of 18 large and mid-sized states with populations exceeding one crore, attributes Andhra’s leap to improvements across the four pillars of justice, police, judiciary, prisons, and legal aid. The state secured second place in the police category, fourth in prisons, and fifth in both judiciary and legal aid.
TDP national spokesperson Jyothsna Tirunagari hailed the achievement as a “dramatic turnaround” and pledged, “We are committed to being No. 1 in the next ranking.”
The report notes that Andhra Pradesh spends the highest amount per inmate in the country, ₹2.6 lakh annually, or ₹733 per day, on its prison population of 7,200. Unlike many states, neither Andhra Pradesh nor Telangana records prison overcrowding, with no facility exceeding 250 per cent occupancy.
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In legal aid, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana contribute more than 80 per cent of their respective budgets, with 100 per cent fund utilisation in 2022-23. However, Andhra Pradesh’s use of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) funds stood at 89 per cent, compared to Telangana’s 61 per cent.
Representation figures remain mixed. Andhra Pradesh has maintained the country’s highest ratio of women in the police force at 22 per cent, and over half of its district court judges are women. Yet the state has recorded a persistent shortfall of more than 10 per cent in Scheduled Caste officers since 2016, while vacancies among Scheduled Tribe constables have climbed from six per cent in 2019 to 11 per cent in 2022.
The police department faces a 21 per cent vacancy rate among constables and 10 per cent among officers. In the judiciary, Andhra Pradesh has one of the lowest vacancy rates for district judges at 12 per cent, but High Court judge vacancies have risen to 19 per cent since 2022.
Reflecting on the broader findings, retired Justice Madan B Lokur observed, “The fourth edition of the India Justice Report points out that improvements remain few and far between in the absence of adequate attention to resources. Alas, the burden continues to remain on the individual seeking justice, not the state to provide it.”
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