EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW

Sir,
 
Questions around who gets charged, who doesn’t or who gets bail and who doesn’t, continue to grow as public confidence in the Judiciary wanes. The unfortunate consequence of this is the rising incidents of citizens resorting to take the law into their own hands. Of late, public confidence in the Judiciary is at an all-time low because of decisions taken that do not seem fair and just.

Clause

A fairly wide section of our society feels that Section 20 of the Constitution, which advocates for equality before the law, is merely a clause of no force or effect. This is precisely why people are resorting to violence in dealing with matters that would otherwise have been adjudicated by the courts. Compounding such thinking, for instance, are reports that an otherwise dormant Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), suddenly becomes visible when it has to probe an ‘enemy’ of the State as it were. Calls for the prosecution of State forces personnel, who allegedly killed citizens and tear-gassed protesters in a bus during June-July 2021 unrests, have not been heeded, which further enforces the perceptions of a biased system of justice in this country.

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