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The World's Legal Systems Lecture 9
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Comprehensive notes of lecture 9 of The World's Legal Systems
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The World’s Legal Systems – Lecture 9Hindu Law
The Emergency and Indira Gandhi
Several Hindu concepts, such as dharma, have place in modern Indian law and modern Indian society.
Last time we were basically talking about the Emergency and Indira Gandhi and how that forced a sort
of restructure in the system. Many people were forced to reclaim or think about the issue of positivism
and modern law. We had to rethink how indigenous law was applicable to their society. So we briefly
went into the kind of changes Indira Gandhi made. Menski in this particular text talks about how, for
instance, she had made various kinds of changes including cutting apart the judges and also changing
the preamble of the Indian Constitution to include the words both secular and socialist. Menski says
that it should not just be read as an infringement of a democratic society, that there is no longer any
kind of democracy in India because of the Emergency which was being declared by Indira Gandhi and
because of Indira Gandhi becoming a dictator. Instead, one should understand it in a broader context
of how Indian society was forced to confront itself in the context of law and it had to look at the
indigenous legal order or it had to look at the concept of dharma itself and understand why or how
one needs balance within the society. So Menski says that after the Emergency and after it was lifted,
people did come to realise that modernism is not enough and that modern law can be misused in the
way Indira Gandhi misused the law and that one needs other ways of understanding and using law. So
Menski mentions for instance that there is a race in what one calls public interest litigation where you
could file a petition directly to the high court or the supreme court of India on any matter of public
interest. Now as we know, public interest is defined in a very lose manner. It can be interpreted in
many ways, but it is something that involves any matter which effects a society collectively. For
instance, matters relating to environment are matters of public interest. If a company doesn’t obey
certain environmental laws, then it becomes a matter for public interest. Anyone can file a petition to
the court and say that this company is not obeying environmental laws and therefore the court should
stop the company from setting up this factory.
Recycling of Hindu concepts in Indian Constitutional law
So Menski says that this kind of movement towards the notion of public interest led to something
called ‘’the duty based jurisprudence’’ in Article 48A and Article 51A. The teacher will briefly mention
what these articles are about. For instance, Article 48A is about the protection and improvement of
environment and safeguarding forest and wildlife. And also there is an entire article on fundamental
duties of citizens or what citizens need to do to abide by the laws of the country and to protect its
institutions. As lawyers, one could say that some of these provisions are quite vague. They are not very
clear, but they do show the motivation behind the government and the motivation behind the
enactment of the law in order to ensure that there is something else other than positivist law or rules.
But they are not just rights, they are also duties. So, for instance, Article 51A is a very vague provision.
It talks about promoting harmony and spirit of common brotherhood. It says that you should have a
sense of citizenship which is beyond religious, cultural or linguistic origins. So you had a certain idea of
being a citizen which is upholding the norms of society or value in society as a whole. You should not
merely think about your religion or your language or think of the ethnicity that you belong to. You need
to transcend all these narrow boundaries. It also says other things such as protecting the natural
environment and developing scientific temper. So this provision is very vague. You will probably not
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