LAW AND JUSTICE

Justice begotten at a cost is justice lost. The fact is lost sight of by present

administration of justice. Justice necessitates an integral vision. It cannot be isolated

from its environment, past, present, future, diverse issues, people involved and related

events. It means delving into the heart of an issue and delivering justice taking into

account all related issues and matters to the rightful entitlement of all. This presupposes

a passion for objectivity and justness and above all, selflessness in the arbitrators of

justice as well as in those who are in the service of the administration of justice. The role

of the police in the administration of justice comes under scrutiny in the context of their

part in the investigation of crimes and maintenance of law and order.

The police play umpteen roles as executors at the grassroots level. They are

basically performers, actual doers in the field. Passion is the normal trait of action.

Objectivity and justness seldom give company to those who act to show results.

Expecting selfless traits in policemen is akin to waiting for rain drops to fall from bright

white clouds. The policemen perform their duties with normal flair and loyalty while put

in service of justice. Only they lean towards the rich and the powerful.

Loyalty to justice is a noble cause. It signifies a heightened mind bound to a

heightened cause. Loyalty to a value or a just cause is always a great virtue. The same

cannot be said about loyalty to individuals of whatever importance. Individual loyalty in

 2

the service of the administration of justice is self-defeating. The achilles’ heel lies in

loyalty, basically faith, a blind faith, sans stirrings in the conscience. The only loyalty

desirable for those in the service of the administration of justice in addition to the loyalty

to the cause of justice and other virtues is loyalty to conscience, freedom of thought and

independent judgement. A policeman with his loyalty can do an exemplary job in the

administration of justice.

The police, as the cutting-edge of governance, enjoys enormous powers. They

can prevent, check, prohibit, restrain, regulate, confine or arrest erring people. They can

forcibly break-open, enter, search and seize when the need arises. They may use

weapons to hurt and kill. These extraordinary powers are tools of the police in serving

the interests of justice. The police, as the means of justice, is exempted from the process

of justice by the law itself. The relevance of the police in the administration of justice is

two-fold: one, fair exercise of their powers to ensure that no harm is done to the

process of justice. There is virtually no way to force them to comply with the needs of

objectivity and fairplay in work save their own interpretations of laws and actions.

Interference of the court often is to little, too late to be meaningful. The lack of a sound

mechanism of supervision and the poor position of the policeman in society, mediocre

education and a deviant job culture inhibit the police from performing at levels

commensurate with their responsibilities. They have no organisational pride. Field

orientations distract them from high human values. A weak economic position and

opportunities to make easy money render them prone to corrupt practices. There is

nothing tangible in their service to inspire a commitment to the noble cause.

 3

Shallow policing is responsible for all the mishaps and turbulence of the first half

century of independent India. Another factor is the exercise of their special powers

without going against justice. The police is a fence which, with its extra-ordinary

powers, however, can ruin the crop it is asked to protect. The enormous powers confer

special responsibilities on it to protect innocent people from a rash exercise of powers.

Every person thinks he is right and every criminal is just in his own assessment.

Every act of a human being has its own logic, reasons and justifications. This is true of

the police too. Every encounter, every lockup death, every third-degree method, every

wrongful confinement, every illegal arrest and every excess committed by the police has

its own justification. It is irrelevant how the justifications appear to outsiders. You

seldom find a policeman confessing to a wrong or an excess committed. Commissioners

have explained away the gunning down of innocent citizens by subordinates in broad

daylight as a case of mistaken identity. We have any number of cases of senior police

officers colluding with subordinates in destroying evidence of lock-up death cases.

The cause of failure of the police lies more in the system’s failure, the character of

its main players, deviant job culture and wrong leadership than in the concept of policing.

Police in an inappropriate milieu may turn into a monster.

These days the executive heads of government opt for their own men in the

police force to head premier investigation agencies; political rivals are investigated and
 4

charge-sheeted on flimsy grounds while cases of national significance drag on. The

police is reduced to the state of a tool of political revenge in this power game. In the

process, the police loses its credibility as a nonpartisan player and an infallible tool of

establishing justice.

Making justice a costly affair gives another dimension to the issue. Effectiveness

of the police lies in its ability to make justice an easily and cheaply dispensable

commodity. The police is the first line of defence. Courts come on the scene only in a

far later stage. Most cases of dispute never go beyond the police stations. Good police

certainly symbolises effective administration of justice more than courts and prosecution

department together do.

5