Measuring Justice as a Public Service
Excerpts From IJR-2025
As we turn a leaf over, at the dawn of another year, we cannot look away from the wars waging around us. Thousands of innocent people have died in avoidable conflicts this year in and around Palestine, Sudan and parts of Africa, Ukraine, Myanmar, Latin America and the Thai-Cambodia border. Closer to home, many lives were lost in terror attacks and cross-border skirmishes.
Another worrisome trend in 2025 was the rise of authoritarianism. Global freedom declined for the 19th consecutive year, according to the Freedom in the World Report 2025. The report, which measures freedom in 195 countries, noted that 34 countries showed improvements, while 60 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties. India’s score declined further as it continues to be rated as a “partly free” country due to rising challenges in religious freedom and the right to expression.
Worldwide, the democratic backslide has, predictably, led to a shrinking of human rights, civic spaces, and a weakening of judicial independence. In 2025, a stark 68% countries declined in their rule of law, as compared to 57% in the previous year, according to the World Justice Project. WJP’s Rule of Law Index is the world’s leading source of data about the rule of law in 143 countries and jurisdictions.
The Rule of Law Index 2025 has warned that more countries are declining and fewer are improving in our world today. What is also on the wane, worryingly, is the independent and legislative oversight of, and the judicial limits on, government powers. We are also learning that it takes a fraction of the time to dismantle institutions that take decades to build.
And that is why independent auditing of state powers—and capacities of the criminal justice system—is crucial to know where we are headed. We must remember that judicial independence and capacity are the citizens’ last defence against autocracy and arbitrary use of power. They are also connected with a nation’s development and the ease of living, and doing business.
It is in this context that the India Justice Report 2025 must be read. The IJR is an independent, collaborative, and non-partisan initiative to study the rule of law across Indian states. Common Cause is one of the six specialist partners that come together to rank the capacities of the police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid across the states and Union Territories.
The IJR series positions justice as an essential public service. Launched in 2018-19, the report has emerged as an important marker of India’s justice system, based on a meaningful analysis of the official statistics. The initiative is driven by the belief that accessibility of the justice system is as essential as its efficiency. And it is in this spirit that the IJR measures the justice delivery capacities of the states and ranks them according to performance against common benchmarks like caste and gender diversity, budget utilisation and the use of human resources.
This issue of your journal presents the excerpts from the India Justice Report 2025. It begins with an overview of the report as well as the whole justice project by its Chief Editor, Ms Maja Daruwala, and her recommendations for policymakers. Being the last issue of 2025, it also carries the Annual Report of Common Cause for its members and well-wishers. As always, your views and comments are welcome. Please write to us at contact@commoncause.in
With best wishes for a bright and peaceful 2026,
Vipul Mudgal
Editor
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