Legal Aspects of Ethics

1982 / D. S. Nakara And Others Vs Union Of India

Coram: Baharul Islam, D A Desai, O Chinnappa Reddy, V D Tulzapurkar, Y V Chandrachud (CJI)

With a slight variation to suit the context Woolessey's prayer : "Had I served my God as reverently as I did my King I would not have fallen on these days of Penury" is chanted by petitioner in this group of petitions in the Shelian tune : "I fall on the thorns of life I bleed." Old age, ebbing mental and physical prowess, atrophy of both muscle and brain powers permeating these petitions, the petitioners in the fall of life yearn for equality of treatment which is being meted out to those who are soon going to join and swell their own ranks.
-
-
-
-
41. The last submission, the absence of precedent need not deter us for a moment. Every new norm of socio-economic justice, every new measure of social justice commenced for the first time at some point in history. If at that time it is rejected as being without a precedent, the law as an instrument of social engineering would have long since been dead and no tears would have long since been dead and no tears would have been shed. To be programmatic is not to be unconstitutional. In its onward march law as an institution ushers in socio-economic justice. In fact, social security in old age commended itself in earlier state as a moral concept but in course to time it acquired legal connotation. The rules of natural justice owed their origin to ethical and moral code. Is there any doubt that they have become the integral and inseparable parts of rule of law of which any civilized society is proud ? Socio-economic justice stems from the concept of socials morality coupled with abhorrence for economic exploitation . And the advancing society converts in course of time moral or ethical code into enforceable legal formulations. Overemphasis on precedent furnishes as insurmountable road block to the onward march towards promised millennium. An overdose of precedents is the bane of our system which is slowly getting stagnant, stratified and atrophied. Therefore, absence of a precedent on this point need not deter us at all. We are all the more happy for the chance of scribing on a clean state.

ps: Read this peice as part of ethics course.