Law and Social change: An Analytical Study

Abstract

There are two sides of each coin’ similarly. Each act of any person is also, either good or bad. And it is the rule, since existence of the society; good has to be accepted and the prohibited (evil, adharma or asatya). Indian Judiciary has generally been found to be alive to the needs of change happening in social thinking. By giving due consideration to the same while interpreting statutes in particular cases, the courts have brought out their fresh implications and thereby added new dimensions to the law. It is correct that law is an instrument of social change, law changes its shape according to the requirement of society or society changes the law through enactment of statues. In India, every session of Parliament and State Legislature introduces the Bills to amend the Act s(s) or enact Act(s). On the other hand, where, any question of facts comes before the court, judiciary’ (especially higher judiciary) is interpreting the law according to the requirement of society. The dialectic of the legal system in India, with its entrenched “multiplex of social structures” on the one hand and its multiplicity of indigenous, colonial, and developmental traditions on the other, is tremendously complex. The significant element in the interaction between law and society in India is the heavy burden on these multiple traditions and the social concerns and orientations of each.