Interpretation of the Law needs to be simpler and more transparent for the students as well as commoners
Recently, Chief Justice of India, NV Ra manna remarked that the Indian legal system should move away from the colonial hangover and focus more on localizing the justice delivery system. Colonial-era Indian laws are often perceived as undemocratic by Law students, who question their existence in a democratic country. The overhauling, say, academicians and law professionals, is possible by simplifying the language in which the laws are drafted for the ease of students and common people.
"You can teach Indian Jurisprudence including what Indian Jurists have been writing on the Law. Our ancient Indian scriptures describe a wider term of law as dharma. It is not religion; it is not 'law' in the modern sense. It is righteousness; philosophically it is good to talk of righteousness and dharma, but you have to translate it into modern times laws enacted by the Parliament and that is not a small challenge," says Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
In the civil and criminal procedures, there has been an effort to incorporate the Rule of Law and one has to give credit to the British colonial masters for giving us modern enlightened laws. If our lawyers take too many adjournments, then laws cannot be faltered for it; if the ratio of judges is low then also our laws can not be faltered. The best solution is to improve judge population ratio and produce competent lawyers," adds Mustafa, explaining, "The problem is not in the curriculum, the problem is the low number of judges. It is everyone's duty to know Law; ignorance of Law is no defense. What is lately happening is that different ministries draft their laws and send them to the Ministry of Law and not give the Law Ministry enough time to vet them. If you are creating a law, it is going to be interpreted by the court, each word is important. The quality of legislative drafting has gone down because we are rushing through the legislative process. We should not rush lawmaking."Most laws are written as scriptures and drafted in the language of the elite, says Mustafa, underlining how laws must be drafted in a simpler language for people to understand them better. "The kind of legal regime that the colonizers created was enlightened, now if we have to change it, we should improve it rather than make it regressive," says Mustafa, explaining that when the laws are translated into the Hindi language, they are written in 'Sanskritised' Hindi that people cannot understand, so when we are drafting laws, we should rather do it in a simpler language for better understanding of people.
"The government has scrapped many redundant laws, but we still have S laws that reflect a colonial H mindset, says Neerav Kha re, assistant professor, E Property Law, JIMS, Greater Noida, elaborating that students often ask that 1 why such laws are still in practice in a democratic r set-up," says Khare.
Even after 74 years of Independence, we are still trapped in the colonial-era web. "The Laws need to be simpler and more transparent so that the common man is not scared to approach the court and is aware of its consequences. Statistics show that only 33% of persons are convicted of se and rest are acquit ted and about 41% of persons are convicted for murder and the rest are set free after trials. Often innocent people have to run from pillar to post for getting justice and to get themselves acquitted," says Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, former deputy registrar (Law), National Human Rights Commission, adding that one of the ways to Indianise the legal System is to introduce a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) that Article 44 of the Indian Constitution enjoins the State to establish throughout the territory of India.
Retired judge Rakesh Kapoor suggests that legal education can be introduced at the senior-secondary level. Children can be taught the importance of having laws.
From - The Times of India
Published on - 22 November 2021
