Topic
Crime rates, policing, prisons, and indicators of access to justice.
The pipeline, end to end
Tamil Nadu's police complete investigations at the highest rate of the five states, and its courts carry the lightest backlog. Then almost nothing ends in a conviction. The story of law and order here is the story of where that pipeline leaks.
01 · Police close cases
In 2023, 90.0% of cognizable IPC cases ended in a charge sheet, the highest of the five states and far above Maharashtra's 57.0%. On the investigation stage, the system works.
IPC cases charge-sheeted (%) · 2023
02 · The lightest backlog
Tamil Nadu carries 24.5 pending cases per 1,000 people in 2026, the lowest of the five and less than half Uttar Pradesh's 59.4. The honest caveat: this is a single provisional snapshot on a fixed 2011-Census denominator that pushes recent values up — read it as a current standing, not a trend.
Pending cases per 1,000 population · 2026
03 · Where it breaks
Of every 100 cognizable IPC cases, the police charge-sheet about 90. But only 15.5% end in a conviction. A strong front end feeds a back end that loses almost everything, and that is the part the state has not fixed.
Of every 100 IPC cases in Tamil Nadu · 2023
04 · What to watch
Conviction has hovered around 15% since 2015, ending at 15.5% in 2023. Until the courts-and-prosecution stage improves, the strong investigation record does not translate into justice delivered.
IPC conviction rate (%) · 2015 → 2023
Can it turn cases into convictions?
15.5% IPC conviction rate, 2023
The single weakest link. Police charge-sheet at the highest rate of the five states, but the prosecution-and-courts stage loses almost all of it.
See the seriesCan it keep its backlog the lightest?
24.5 pending per 1,000, 2026
The lightest backlog of the five — a provisional 24.5 per 1,000 in 2026, on a fixed 2011-Census denominator that nudges recent values up. A current snapshot, not a trend.
See the seriesCan it keep its stations staffed?
172 police per lakh, 2022
Among the better-staffed of the five and rising. Sustaining it underpins the strong investigation stage.
See the seriesFrom a registered case to a charge sheet to a conviction.
How much crime is registered, and how many police there are to handle it.
The bottom line
Tamil Nadu turns investigations into filed charges more reliably than any of the four states compared, a genuine procedural strength even as conviction remains a work in progress.
See how every figure is sourced & checked →