Why should we care about the law?

Why should we care about the law?

    If you are here reading this then you probably might be wondering "why should I care about the law, it is only for the lawyers/attorneys and not for me?". Unfortunately and sadly, you couldn't be more wrong!

    Anyone who lives (or wants to live in) a 'free society' must know the laws to a reasonable degree, to the extent to protect you and your family in all aspects of your life.  To educate you (those living in India) to that level of legal knowledge is indeed the primary, and perhaps the only object of this blog!

    Now, you might be wondering as to what is this "free society" and do I live in one? A simple definition of free society is "a society where people have the right to exercise unlimited freedom to live in whatever manner they choose, freedom to pursue their own goals, so long as they do not directly or indirectly interfere with the equal rights of others to do the same". Most democracy provides, or at-least aims to create and maintain such free society, as that being one of the ideals of democracy. How do the democratic countries tries to accomplishes this? by vehemently promoting "Rule of Law" as a way of living! That is, if you live in a democracy, then most aspects of your life  is governed and guided by the "Rule of Law". This blog aims to give you a glimpse of basic laws for living with dignity and self-respect! To empower you so that you do not need to put yourself at the mercy of anyone!

    What is "rule of law"? Supreme Court of Canada has succinctly summarized the Rule of Law as “conveying a sense of orderliness, of subjection to known legal rules and of executive accountability to legal authority” (Reference re Resolution to Amend the Constitution, 1981). The Court has also said that “at its most basic level, the rule of law vouchsafes to the citizens and residents of the country a stable, predictable and ordered society in which to conduct their affairs. It provides a shield for individuals from arbitrary state (and private) action” (Reference re Secession of Quebec, 1998).

            Supreme Court of India in a celebrated case "Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru and Ors vs State of Kerala and Anr"(1973), has held ‘Rule of Law’ is a basic feature of the Constitution which permeates the whole of the constitutional fabric and is an integral part of the constitutional structure.

Further in "Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association and another vs Union of India"(1993), the Supreme Court of India adopted the "rule of law" as defined by Friedrich A. Hayek (per his book 'Road to Serfdom') which reads:  "The rule of law stands for the view that decisions should be made by the application of known principles or laws. In general such decisions will be predictable, and the citizen will know where he is. On the other hand there is what is arbitrary. A decision may be made without principle, without any rules. It is therefore unpredictable, the antithesis of a decision taken in accordance with the rule of law ".

The Supreme Court further went onto observe:

"341. Leaving aside these extravagant versions of rule of law, there is a genuine concept of rule of law and that concept implies equality before the law or equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law. But, if rule of law is to be a basic structure of the Constitution, one must find specific provisions in the Constitution embodying the constituent elements of the concept. I cannot conceive of rule of law as a twinkling star up above the Constitution. To be a basic structure, it must be a terrestrial concept having its habitat within the four corners of the constitution. The provisions of the Constitution were enacted with a view to ensure the rule of law....."

Thus, rule of law is an essential part of our living in free society/democaracy, as it prescribes how you, me and others (neighbors, merchants, govt authorities etc) should or should not conduct our affairs of interest!

If not, imagine:

(1) Mighty is right: A big fellow gets up in the morning and decided he needs some money and starts stopping all the cars and starts forcefully collecting road use fee until he collected enough! Or he spots a nice car, stops it and forces the owner/driver out of the car and takes the car away!

(2) Taking advantage of the situation: A grocery shop owner figures that your favorite and popular candy isn't available in and around few KM from your residence and thus start charging you extra 5 rupees on top of MRP!

(3) Abuse of authority: Your neighbor happen to be a Municipal/Corporation planner who intentionally refuses to approve a legally valid building modification plan, even though he had no issues approving similar plans for others!

(4) Arbitrariness: you are a credit worthy and economically good standing citizen but your banker refuses to give you a loan only because you happened to have a brown skin or belong to a specific caste that he doesn't like!

(5) Free riders: You work hard for a decade and saved enough to buy a plot and built a house, and one fine morning you see a man start building a house on the adjacent government land that was reserved for Public Park!

As you can imagine, the list is endless and the "rule of law" gives us the power to stop such things that affects our lives!

A wise man once said, it is a sin to put yourself at the mercy of another man! Not knowing the basic law and procedure will invariably put yourself at the mercy of someone else for sure. So, don't commit that sin, educate yourself and protect your dignity, self-respect and rights that are rightfully yours!

It is not enough that we live in a free society governed by democratic principles. We must actively seek to sustain it so that the free society stays free! While vast majority of Indians think that freedom synonymous with getting rid of British from India, and credit Gandhi for ‘getting” us that freedom, Gandhi himself did not believe so, and famously observed:

"Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority."        (Young India, 29-1-1925, p. 41)

While that was Gandhi’s keen sense of the need for the public to acquire the capacity to regulate and control the authority, Dr.Ambedkar, one of the legal luminaries of this young nation had something more powerful to say that is relevant for all who love and respect freedom! On 25th Nov, 1949, speaking at the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, he said, among other things:

“If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.

The second thing we must do is to observe the caution which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not "to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with power which enable him to subvert their institutions". There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness. As has been well said by the Irish Patriot Daniel O'Connel, no man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country. For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship. “

From above it must be clear that it is imperative for every citizen to know that we not only must acquire the capacity to regulate and control all forms of authority, we must be able to do so with the help of constitutional methods, including that of achieving the social and economic justice! Violence, Picketing, Dharna, Fast undo death have no place in Democracy!

It is wisely said that, in life, what you don’t know can and will hurt you!

Thus, this blog aspires to enable the Citizens of India to live up to the ideals of Gandhi and Ambedkar, regardless of the socio-economic status of Citizens. I planned to document legal tenets, correct position of law, process and options available etc, for most common challenges faced by common man. So, do subscribe to this blog and send your queries or stories via comments on this blog. I encourage all to share your experiences, issues and challenges and I will be happy to provide my well thought about suggestions and ideas and try to help you!