The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society | NCERT Class 8th | Notes | Social Science

• The Preamble to the Constitution of India promises all Indian citizens social, economic, and political justice.
• The founders of independent India laid the foundation for a sound judicial system in a democratic society, where justice is essential for maintaining peace and harmony and ensures that individuals can live with equality and dignity.
• The Judiciary is the institution that ensures fair adjudication of disputes in accordance with the law and treats everyone justly and with fairness.
• Society involves many complex personal and professional interactions happening all the time, due to which disagreements and disputes may arise from diverse contexts and situations.
• Disputes between parties are often resolved through dialogue, mediation, or adjudication by courts of law.
• The judiciary plays a vital role in ensuring that laws passed by the legislature are within the framework of the Constitution and that the executive does not overstep its role as outlined in the Constitution.

The Connection Between Law and Justice

• As human societies grew larger and more complex, systems of governance started emerging, and the task of ensuring fair treatment and peaceful living for everyone was given to the government.
• Governments were given the power to administer society through laws and the power to enforce such laws, with force if needed.
• The government ensures justice in society by framing laws, which are general rules made by the government to regulate individuals’ activities in society and impose consequences for not following them.
• These consequences may include paying a fine, giving compensation to the affected party, or even imprisonment in some cases.
• The judicial system enables individuals to complain in case of a grievance and allows the affected person to place their point of view, so that justice is ensured within the framework of the law and the Constitution.
• When a person experiences injustice, they may feel that the wrongdoer should be punished, should apologise, or that they should receive compensation; the accused person, however, may feel that they should be given a chance to explain what happened.
• This leads to two important aspects of justice: substantive justice and procedural justice.
• Substantive justice focuses on the final result or outcome and asks whether the decision is actually fair, just, and reasonable.
• Procedural justice means that every person involved gets a full opportunity of hearing before a decision is taken by the court.
• As a rule, every person is presumed to be innocent until proved guilty.