SELECTIVE IN INVOKING LAW

All are equal before law, the famed rule of law, due process et al will only make sense when there is no selective invocation of law. It will only make sense if we have depth of machinery to implement all laws of the land. A functional, dynamic, real time mechanism to respond to any illegal act taking place and at the least being able to set the law in motion. You are not guilty till not proven so in a judgement by the highest court of the land. You are also not guilty if a case is not registered against you. Selective invocation of law is the travesty of the legal system, which has been put in place.

The person, mechanism or group which decides what case is to registered, in which sections, against whom becomes the biggest arbiter fo justice, much before it has started. Who has the discretion to decide on it? From the SHO to the powers that be, take a call on a regular basis on the registration of cases. What finally comes to limelight is, after all the avenues of this nature are fully exhausted. From a Dowry Death to a major pollution related non-compliance or a bank defaulter, large numbers go through this process; formal or otherwise, as the case may be. The famed legal opinion can make anything non-potent, it if decides to do so, may it be audit reports, enquiry reports or creating technical issues for not invoking the law.

Selection in invoking law also pertains to the pace of action and the intensity in doing so, making it known to the world that the law has been invoked and that the legal consequences would befall the concerned. It also means that the time spend in its preparation to make it full proof or otherwise and the time spend by the concerned agency to take it to its logical conclusion. The focus and precision in any case decides its course. Take any known case in recent memory or the ones unfolding right now, you will be able to make out this streak, without making much of an effort. And you well remember tonnes of cases which have fallen by wayside, the cases which made headlines for months together, ending up in total naught.

The law taking its own course is talked about because of total lack of understanding of law or if there is a vested agenda or an effort to confuse or evade. While declaring the faith in law, it may be allowed to falter, is the meaning it conveys. Being selective in the use of law and also it’s timing, where the end is made visible, is an unimaginable travesty of justice, which is never ever discussed in legal, executive and even investigative circles. What is not registered is not a case / offence is the ultimate truism of rule of law. Having an expansive mechanism to deal with every aberration with equal impunity is the need of the hour. The predictability of crash landing in a legal case and of judicial decision being delivered in a prescribed time will bring back the real rule of law.

RULE OF LAW PRESUMES NON SELECTIVE USE OF LAW.
Sanjay Sahay

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