"THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAYMAN"
By Nari H. Gursahani, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court
Rule of Law, its meaning
The rule of Law is the foundation of civilisation and the soul of democracy. It is imperative, therefore, that the common men and women who constitute the fabric of democratic society in India must know at least broadly the framework of the legal system and the contents of Laws governing him or her and also ought to become
knowledgeable with his/her legal rights and responsibilities and with the Constitution of India which is "The Supreme Law of the land and "Magna
Carta" of people's rights, freedoms and liberty in India."
It is a well established principle of administration of justice and Rule of Law that where there is a legal right possessed by a citizen, there is a remedy for its enforcement. It is, therefore, necessary that every citizen has at least a nodding acquaintance with his/her rights/laws governing his/her life, property, marriage, freedom, offences so that the citizen knows what rights can be judicially enforced as all rights cannot be legally enforced and what are the appropriate legal remedies to enforce these rights. The citizen ought to know that our Constitution not only guarantees fundamental rights for citizens but also prescribes fundamentals duties.
To quote SELDAN "Ignorance of the law excuses no man. Every man must be taken to know the law, to hold the contrary would be to confer a premium on ignorance which would afford a defence to every transgression of the law."
What then is Rule of Law ? The answer can be found in our Constitution. "Our Constitution postulates rule of law in the sense of supremecy of Law and the laws which are opposed to arbitrariness" observed Justice H. R.
Khanna, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India in his book "Judicial Review or Confrontation."
What is Law ?
Mr. William A. Robson stated in his famous Book "Civilisation and Growth of Law" in U.S.A. in the year 1933 the "The Priests and Poets, Philosophers and Kings, masses no less than Prophets, a host of answers might be given yet to the question as to what is law remains one of the most persistent and elusive problem in the whole range of thought. For one may view the entire gamut of human life both in thought and action as being comprised within the concept of law although a legal system is in fact but a part of larger social order. It may seem strange that the true essence of such ubiquities phenomenon "Law" should be beyond the grasp of general human understanding since the law deals with human conduct, in order to grasp its nature, it would appear necessary merely to distinguish it from the other factors relating to conduct, religion, science, morals, ethics, custom".
Half a century ago, James Colidge Carter ably explained the difficulty of what is Law, as "under law, custom, conduct, life are different names for almost the same thing, true names for different aspects of the same thing but are so inseparably
blended together that one cannot even be thought of without the other. No improvement can be effected in one without improving the other and no retrogression can take place in one without a corresponding decline in the other." There is little doubt that laws has much in common with all these and other aspects of the human conduct; yet it is true that it also possesses at least one characteristic unique to it and lacking in all other aspects of human conduct and that is that its "sanction" is applied exclusively by organised political Government.
French social theorist Auguste Gomte who was the founder of the analytical school of Jurisprudence once stated : "Law consists of definite rules of human conduct with appropriate sanctions for their enforcement both of these being prescribed by duly constituted human authority.
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