All our Puranas, Itihasas and historical records have laid emphasis on the fact that the king was always just; he derived his authority and judgement solely from Dharma; he generally presided over an assembly of experts in jurisprudence, scholars in Dharma Shastra, drawn from different walks of life, and experienced in solving complex cases; he never took any decision with respect to judgement on crimes without proper analysis of facts and cogitation. Of course, there were a few kings, who were cruel, flippant and subjective in their assessment; but they were thrown out after a while.
Dharma Shastras, Srimad Valmiki Ramayanam, Mahabharatham (Shanti Parva and Vidura Niti in particular), Puranas, Chanakya Niti, Tirukkural and many other ancient works offer detailed guidelines on law and justice. In Srimad Valmiki Ramayanam, Shri Rama says:
उपाय कुशलम् वैद्यम् भृत्य संदूषणे रतम् |
शूरम् ऐश्वर्य कामम् च यो न हन्ति स वध्यते || 2.100.29।।
“A learned person but skilled in contrivances, a warrior with passion for wealth and a man ever engaged in corrupting the minds of servants must be slain. A king who does not kill them is himself killed in due course.” Mahabharatam says:
माता पिता च भ्राता च भार्य चैव पुरोहित: |
नादणङ्यो विद्यते राज्ञो य: स्वधर्मे न तिष्ठति || (Shanti Parva, 121.60)
“For the king, there is none, who has deviated from Svadharma, who is not to be given punishment, whether it is mother, father, brother or wife.”
In Mahabharatam, in Viduraniti, Vidura advises Dhritarashtra:
“For the sake of the family, a member may be sacrificed; for the sake of the village, a family may be sacrificed; for the sake of a kingdom, a village may be sacrificed; for the sake of one’s Atma, the entire earth may be sacrificed.” Dhritarashtra, the king, did not heed the sane advice of Vidura, with the result that his entire clan was annihilated in the war.
Tirukkural says:
குடிபுறங் காத்தோம்பிக் குற்றம் கடிதல்
வடுவன்று வேந்தன் தொழில்.
“To punish a crime, in order to protect and nurture one’s subjects is not a blot on the king, but his duty.”
Kautilya also avers that it is the power of punishment alone, when exercised impartially in proportion to the guilt, and irrespective of whether the person punished is the king’s son or an enemy, that protects this world and the next.
The story of Manu Needhi Cholan, the Tamil king, who drove his chariot over his son as punishment for his having run the chariot over a calf, is well known. Similarly King Shibi is said to have rescued a dove (Agni in disguise) from a kite (Indra in disguise) by offering up his own flesh initially and himself at the end.
Rajatarangini, the celebrated epic poem of Kalhana, presenting the chronicle of history of kings of Kashmir, records a very interesting incident of how a king ingeniously solved a difficult criminal case. Kalhana describes one such instance in great detail in respect of king Yashaskara of the 10th century, A. D. One of the citizens had gone out of the city, and sold his house before he left. In the sale deed he mentioned: सोपान कू प र हतम् गृहं िव तम् – Sopana koo pa ra h itham Gruham Vikreetham; “I am selling the house without (rahitam in Samskrit means without) staircase and well.” He kept his wife in charge of Sopana and Koopa (whatever were not sold – staircase and the well). The purchaser drove away his wife and took illegal possession of staircase and well. When the seller of the property came back, he was surprised to find that his wife was begging and living on alms. He went and protested to the king. Before he could reach the king, there were several layers of justice. And justice was denied everywhere as it was said that the sale deed does not say Sopana koopa-rahitham (without), but it says, Sopana Koopa-Sahitam (along with Staircase and well). In those days, there was no practice of keeping copy of sale deed. The matter was brought to the notice of the king. Various judges had delivered judgement which was unfavourable to the seller and concluded that he was unnecessarily troubling the buyer. Somehow the king grew suspicious. He adopted very ingenious ways of finding the truth and concluded that the clerk at the Registrar’s Office had overwritten ‘Sopana koopa-sahitham’ instead of ‘Sopana koopa- rahitam’. ”Ra” was replaced with “Sa”. The king punished the clerk and the registrar and expelled the purchaser out of the kingdom and restored the house to the seller. All this happened within months. There are many such incidents that Kalhana mentions during the rule of king Yashaskara.
Against this background, if we look at the current condition of dispensation of justice in our country, it is extremely despairing. The agencies in charge of crime investigation are numerous. Despite their claim to adopting the latest scientific methods, the time taken by them for solving the crimes is unconscionably high. And, after all this, when the case goes to court, it is dismissed for want of concrete evidence. The levels of courts of justice are again too many. The legal procedures are highly complex, convoluted, time consuming and very expensive. For example, adjournments galore are granted at the drop of a hat; there is a stage called quashing of criminal charges; there is the application for bail; every order of a lower court is appealed against; and these matters go right upto Supreme court. Criminals go in and out of jails, but escape the final punishment due to them because of procedural wrangling and endless appeals, particularly if they are rich and powerful. There is absolutely no way for a commoner to secure justice with limited expense of time and money. And undertrials with no proven evidence of crime against them languish endlessly in jails. Very often, by the time the final judgement is delivered, the criminal is already dead; the applicant for a job is past retirement age; the financial claims are sanctioned long after their urgent need; the purpose is totally lost; the litigation becomes infructuous. The system naturally does not engender fear in potential criminals.
Incidence of crime has increased in the absence of moral education and training in ethics for youth. Low level politics creates conditions suitable for committing crime – unemployment, underemployment, unfair conditions of job, rivalry, avarice, hate. And if justice is also delayed and is expensive, what can we expect other than further deterioration of social conditions? This leads to more crime. And the cycle is regressive. Let us pray to the Almighty to instil the necessary sense of balance, urgency and expediency in the powers-that- be to find necessary solutions in order to evolve a society relatively free from crime and a system of investigation and justice, which is quick, satisfying and effective.
