[Music] hello and welcome to your students today we are going to discuss an important topic rule of law you can also call it as the doctrine of rule of law in this lecture we shall try to understand firstly the concept of rule of law secondly diocese perception of rule of law thirdly merits and demerits of diocese perception of rule of law fourthly rule of law within the parameters of constitution of india last but not least the role of judiciary in maintaining the sanctity of rule of law rule of law embodies the doctrine of supermessy of law it is a basic and fundamental necessity for a disciplined and organized community rule of law is an animation of natural law the expression rule of law has been derived from the french phrase la principal delegati the principle of legality which refers to the garment based on the principle of law rule of law has not fixed or articulate connotation the rule of law is indispensable for a democratic set of government it is basic and fundamental necessity for a disciplined and organized community law commission of india in 1961 reported that our constitution cannot function and no nation can march along the true democratic way of life without a true and continuous realization and the importance of rule of law when you attempt to find out the roots of rule of law you will come to know that rule of law as a concept has been in existence since times immemorial early greeks located the concept of rule of law in right reason which must inform all the state actions tom's traced the concept in law of gods hobbes lock rocio located in in secular traditions for social contract in which a state is formed only to protect the life liberty and dignity of an individual daisy located it in right based liberalism and judicial review however edward koch is said to be the originator of this concept when he asserted that the king must be under the god and law and thus vindicated the super messy of law over the pretensions of executive in india the concept of rule of law can be traced to open shells it provides that law is the king of kings it's more powerful and rigid than the kings there is nothing higher than the law by its power the weak shall prevail or the strong and just shall trump thus in monarchy the concept of law developed in order to control the exercise of arbitrary powers by monarchs who claimed divine power to rule in a democracy the concept has assumed different dimensions and means that the holders of public power must be able to justify publicly the exercise of power is legally valid and socially just the term rule of law can be used in two senses one is the formalistic sense and the other is ideological sense when rule of law is used in the formalistic sense it refers the organized power as opposed to rule by one man and when it is used in the ideological sense it refers the regulation of relationship of the seasons with the comment and in this sense it becomes a concept of varied interests and contents daisy developed the theory of edward koch in his classical work the law and the constitution which he published in year 1885. according to dicey rule of law is one of the fundamental principles of english legal system daisy attributed three facets to rule of law one supermassia of law second equality before the law and third judgment constitution explaining the first facet the principle of supermessy of law daisy stated that rule of law means absolute super messy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power or white discretionary power it excludes the existence of arbitrariness or peregrative or even of wide discretionary power on the part of comment according to him the englishman were ruled by the law and law alone a man may be punished for a breach of law and law alone but he can be punished for nothing else in his words wherever there is discretion there is room for arbitrariness and that any republic no less than under a monarchy discretionary authority on the part of the government must mean insecurity of legal freedom on the part of subjects daisy described this principle as central and the most important feature of the common law talking about second facet of rule of law that is equality before the law dicey stated that there must be equality before the law or the subjection of all the classes to ordinary law of land administered by the ordinary law courts regarding equality before the law dicey proclaimed with us every official from prime minister down to a constable or a collector of texas is under the same responsibility of every egg done without legal justification as any other citizen does coming to the third facet of dice's rule of law that is judgement constitution explaining the third principle dicey stated that in many countries right for instance right to personal liberty freedom from arrest freedom to hold public meetings etc are guaranteed by a written constitution in england it is not so but that does not mean that there is no rule of law the concept of rule of law as given by dicey in 1885 reflects absolute super messy or predominance of law and excludes the existence of arbitrariness on the part of government daisy asserted that wherever there was discretion there was room for arbitrariness which led to insecurity of the seasons dicey attributed to the concept of rule of law another significance which was equality before the law or equal subjugation of all the classes to the ordinary law administered by the ordinary law courts he maintained that every person was subjected to one and the same body of law he criticized it the riot administrative prevalent in france where there were separate administrative tribunals for deciding the cases between the government and the citizens now another concept of rule of law which is embodied under the indian constitution dicey's rule of law has been adopted and incorporated in indian constitution rule of law under constitution serves the needs of the people without infringing their rights the indian constitution by and large seeks to promote rule of law through many of its provisions for example the preamble itself initiates the ideas of just liberty and equality in part third of the constitution these concepts are enshrined as fundamental rights and are made enforceable the constitution is supreme and all other organs of the government with legislative executive and judiciary are subordinate and have to act in consonance with the constitution absence of arbitrary power is the first essential of rule of law upon which our whole constitutional system is based everyone whether individually or collectively is unquestionably under the supremacy of law the doctrine of judicial review is embodied in the constitution and the subjects can approach high courts and honorable supreme court for the enforcement of rights guaranteed under the constitution if the executive or the government abuses the power vested in it or if the action is nullified the same can be questioned by ordinary courts of law all laws regulations ordinances by-laws notifications customs and usages are laws within the meaning of article 13 of the constitution and if they are inconsistent or contrary to any of the provisions they can be declared as ultravirus by the supreme court or by high courts the president is required to take an oath to preserve and protect and defend the constitution no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by the law executive and delays lead to powers of the state and the union have to be exercised in accordance with the provisions of the constitution government and the public officials are not about law the maxim that king can do wrong does not apply in india there's equality before the law and equal protection of laws government and the public authorities are also subjected to the jurisdiction of ordinary courts of law and for similar wrongs are to be tried and punished similarly they are not immune from ordinary legal process nor are any provisions made regarding the separate administrative courts and tribunals in public service also the doctrine of equality is accepted the rule of law forms the part or basic structure of the constitution the broad objectives lay down in the preamble the rights conferred and guaranteed in part third of the constitution the guilty is imposed on the state authorities the unity and the integrity of the nation can be secured only when the principle of rule of law is honestly applied and observed in the governance of the country when we analyze the role of judiciary in maintaining the sanctity of the rule of law it is really appreciable judiciary is duty bound to uphold the constitutional values and to enforce the constitutional limitations which is the sense of rule of law the judiciary has to follow the rule of law and to function within the permissible parameters an independent jurisdr is indispensable for a democratic set of government under the rule of law while deliberating upon their sense of rule of law justice bhagavati in the case of minerva mills versus union of india observed that its cardinal principle of our constitution that no one howsoever highly placed and no authority howsoever lofty can claim to be the sole judge of its own power under the constitution or whether its action is within the confines of such power laid on by the constitution the judiciary is the interpreter of the constitution and is assigned with the task of determining the extent of power conferred on each of the branches of the government whether it is limited and if so what are the limits and whether any action of that branch transgresses such limit it is for the judiciary to uphold the constitutional values and to enforce the constitutional limitations that's the sense of rule of law the supreme court has put up a stamp of approval on the observation made by justice douglas law has reached its finest moment when it has freed the man from unlimited discretion of some ruler where discretion is absolute man has always suffered united states versus wanderlust 1951 and lord mansfield who stated that in the classical terms discretion means sound discretion guided by law it must be governed by rule it must not be arbitrary it must not be vague it must not be sensible we have another decided celebrated case butchen singh versus state of punjab it was decided in year 1982. justice bhagwati in this case has emphasized that rule of law excludes arbitrariness and unreasonableness justice bhagavati observed that rule of law permeates the entire fabric of constitution and indeed forms the basic feature to ensure this he has suggested that it's necessary to have democratic legislature to make laws but its power should not be unfettered and there should be an independent judiciary to protect the seasons against the excesses of executive and the legislative power in akkarai park versus union of india the court observed that under our constitution rule of law pervades the entire field of administration is regulated by the rule of law in a welfare state it's inevitable that jurisdiction of the administrative bodies is increasing by rapid rate the concept of rule of law would lose its vitality if instrumentalities of the state are not chartered with the duty discharging their functions in a just and fair manner in yet another case yosef khan vs manohar jyoshi the honorable supreme court has laid down the proposition that it is the duty of the state to preserve and protect the law and the constitution and that it cannot permit any violent act which may negate the rule of law justice khanna in the case of agm double poor versus s shukla observed that rule of law is antithesis to arbitrariness rule of law is now the accepted norm of all the civilized societies everywhere it is identified with the liberty of the individual it seeks to maintain the opposite notions of individual liberty and the public order the high court of german kashmir in the case of muhammad ashraf malik was a state observed that a democratic society is governed by the rule of law even in extreme and adverse circumstances the state is to be guided by the rule of law now we will move to the advantages and disadvantages of rule of law dicey's concept of rule of law had its advantages as well as disadvantages although complete absence of discretionary power or its sense of inequality are not possible in this administrative age yet the concept of rule of law has been used to spell out many prepositions and directions to restrain an undue increase in the administrative powers to create control over it the rule of law has given to the countries following the common law system a philosophy to curb the government power and to keep it within bonds it has provided a sort of touchstone or standard to judge the debt and test law prevailing in the country at a given time traditionally rule of law denotes a sense of arbitrary powers and therefore one can denounce the increase of arbitrary powers and administration and advocate controlling through a procedure and other means similarly rule of law is also associated with the super messy of the course therefore the course should have the power to control administrative actions and any overt diminution of that power to is criticized judicial control of administrative action is pivot of administrative law in england even today the principle implies in the rule of law and exquito must act under it is settled a cardinal principle of common law system the executor is regarded as not having any inherent power of its own but all its power flow from flow and emanate from the law a principle which plays a very vital role in all democratic countries of today it also serves as basis of judicial review of administrative actions now we will move to disadvantages of diocese concept of rule of law there has been a negative concept of rule of law as well a great defect in diocese analysis is his insistence on absence of wide discretionary powers in other words dicey completely ignored the concept of discretionary power grant of discretionary powers to the executive as well as to the judiciary is inevitable as no law rule or regulation made there under make our entire aspect of human activity the needs of the modern government make wild discretionary powers inescapable perhaps the greatest effect of the concept has been misplaced a trust in the efficiency of judicial control as a pineca for all evils and somewhat irrational attitude generated towards french system dicey was factually wrong in his analysis as he ignored the privileges and the immunities enjoyed by the crown under the constitutional maxim king can do no wrong and also ignored many statutes which conferred discretionary powers on the executive which could not be called integration in ordinary courts dicey misunderstood and miscomprehended the real nature of french dryad administrative he thought that this system was designed to protect officials from liability from their ex and as such was inferior to the bridge system of ordinary courts deciding disputes between the citizens and the state he also ignored the growth of administrative tribunals which had come into existence however it may be mentioned here that even the discretionary powers cannot be exercised arbitrarily or capriciously now to conclude you can say that rule of law as a higher law provides an ideal which societies can emulate it thus provides a criterion and reference to which one can evaluate laws and legal structures of governance of any society where it puts restraint on the majoritarian rule rule of law thus mandates the power must be made accountable governance progressively just and equal and the states incrementally ethical even in most autocratic forms of government there is some law according to which the powers of the government are exercised but it does not mean that there is no rule of law therefore rule of law means that law rules which is based on the principle of freedom non-arbitrariness and is certain regular and predictable rule of law implies readdressing and reassessing the claims that rule of law is the supreme manifestation of human civilization the rule of law is a viable and dynamic concept rule of law has no fixed or articulate connotation however the broad answers of rule of law is absence of unlimited or arbitrary powers in the country rule of law is the supreme manifestation of human civilization and culture and is new linga of global moral thoughts it's an eternal value of constitutionalism and is very inherent attribute of democracy and good governance rule of law is an animation of natural law and remains as a historical ideal which makes powerful appeal even today to be ruled by law not by powerful man in short we can say that rule of law means that law rules and the law which rules there that must be based on the principle of freedom equality non-discrimination fraternity accountability and non-arbitrariness and is certain regular and predictable rule of law permeates the entire fabric of constitution and indeed forms one of its basic features the concept of rule of law in india is truly recognized by the constitution and is firmly established by judicial pronouncements the rule of law is the foundation of our legal system when the foundation shakes everything shakes dear students hope you might have enjoyed and understood the lecture stay healthy stay blessed goodbye [Music] you