Interplay of Rule of Law and Social Transformation

Like every mother wants her child to imbibe certain ideals, character for life, our constitution framers also desired certain ideals, character and values for our society. The preamble to the Indian Constitution gives a glimpse of these fundamentals in a nutshell. But except for certain basic characters/structures, with the manoeuvring wheel of time, just like humans even societal behaviour, gets subjected to growth, decay, revival, and accommodation. This phenomenon of social change needs to be accurately tracked by the spirit of constitutionalism, dynamics of Law, Legislation, and judicial interpretations, in order to “secure justice, liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity to maintain unity and integrity of the nation”. This journey of bridging the shores of idealism with realism is the basic difference between constitutionalism and the Rule of Law. The present Article attempts to arrest such instrumentalities/consequences of these Social Changes, wherein two modes of this aspect are broadly discussed. First is where “Law brings the change in Society”, meaning thereby, that the law compels societal behaviour to change according to it and the second is where “Society changes the Law” according to time and societal need, legislative wisdom. The study is supplemented with the instances, judicial precedents, and legislations witnessed in recent times. Article also highlights some other factors affecting the need and relationship between Law & Social Change. The study is contemporary in nature and is significant to understand the ramifications of changing societal behaviour vis-a-vis the Rule of Law, its dynamic functioning, and interplay of constitutionalism as a guarding soul of the Basic structure of the Indian Constitution.