‘Law will take its own course’ – we hear this phrase whenever there is a serious law and order situation, a case involving a politician, a celebrity or a rich and mighty.
What does this phrase mean? For a layperson, it connotes that justice will be done – the guilty will be punished while a person who is not guilty will be not harassed and acquitted within a reasonable time. The law will treat all persons equally and equitably. Is this a utopian expectation?
When an ordinary person is accused of a wrongdoing, he is arrested immediately for investigation; for him getting bail becomes a nightmare; he or she has to spend days in jail. We saw this when two young girls were arrested for making a comment on the Facebook, we saw this when artists drew cartoons which were critical of the political system or politician. On the other hand, when MLAs allegedly thrashed a police officer within the precincts of the Legislative Assembly, one had to wait for the accused MLAs to surrender and the Home Minister declared that the CCTV footage is inconclusive. When politicians make a hate speech, the arrest has to wait till the enquiry is complete. So much for the law taking its own course!
Does the law take its own course? One wonders! In fact, often, the law does not have its own course at all. Law enforcing agencies and persons with political patronage can influence and drag the law on the course that they want or desire to suit their convenience. At times, law enforcing agencies are used by the government of the day to serve its political goals.
When somebody says that law will take its own course, possibly he or she actually means that after getting bail the law will be made to take a long winding course before reaching any logical conclusion, if at all it reaches any such conclusion. In fact, when a celebrity or a politician uses that phrase and expresses his great respect for and belief in the legal system in general and judiciary in particular, he actually expresses his ability to influence or delay the legal process; he believes in the proverb – ‘This too shall pass’. We have a film celebrity facing prosecution for hit-and-run accident and hunting of blackbucks. Both the cases are pending for over a decade while the celebrity is leading his normal life.
Recently, the Supreme Court gave its verdict in Mumbai Blasts case 20 years after the event occurred. Conviction of a large number of persons has been upheld. But the media focussed on only one celebrity convict. There is already a clamour for leniency and pardon for him on the ground that he has gone through mental torture all these years and that is a good enough punishment. A retired judge of the Supreme Court, the film fraternity and many others are pleading his case. We forget there are other convicts who have gone through similar agony, some of whom had unwittingly become part of the whole episode and the law took its own course in their case.
While often the law does not take the desired course, at times the law makers avoid enacting an effective law so that there is no question of law taking its own course. (We are still waiting for the law on Lokpal.) Then at times, the law makers enact the law that suits them and ensure what course the law should take. In the Income tax Act there are provisions (existing and proposed) to curb unaccounted money. If a person buys or sells immovable property or buys shares of unlisted company etc. at less than the prescribed value, the difference is charged to tax on the presumption that unaccounted money has exchanged hands. If a charitable trust receives anonymous donations, the trust is taxed on the premises that such donations are out of unaccounted money. In the Finance Bill, 2013 there is also a provision for disallowing deduction to the donor for cash donations made to political parties. But there is no provision to tax political parties for the anonymous donations received by them so long as the amount of each donation in the accounts does not exceed Rs. 20,000.
According to a study conducted by the Association of Democratic Reform (working across the country for transparency in political and electoral system), a very substantial portion of the contributions collected as donations or `sale of coupons’ by political parties is in cash or anonymous. One has to only guess the source or nature of these funds. All such collections are exempt from income tax in the hands of political parties. Article 14 of the Constitution of India strikes at arbitrariness and ensures fairness and equality of treatment. But it also permits rational classification. And after all, political parties are a class by themselves!
Sanjeev Pandit
Editor
