Social Justice: A study by Development Data Lab, a US-based research organisation, has found scant evidence of any systemic gender or religious bias in the district and subordinate courts across India.
The study looked at a dataset of eight crore case records of all district and subordinate courts, from 2010 to 2018. These cases cover over 7,000 lower trial courts and more than 80,000 judges. This is the first such empirical study of judicial data in India.
However, the lack of bias that the study found with respect to cases involving Muslims and women does not rule out judicial bias in its entirety. For, while it examines systemic bias during conviction and acquittal, the study leaves out significant markers of the judicial processes such as framing of charges, granting bail, and determining the quantum of punishment.
The study also leaves out caste as a variable when examining bias. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s data for 2019, Muslims, Adivasis, and Dalits constitute the biggest set of undertrials in the country, disproportionate to their share in the population.
The authors of the study said that they did not examine bias on the dimensions of income or caste because they did not yet have an algorithm that can classify these dimensions with high accuracy.