Significant research and developments have been made in the field of preventive and social medicines, which have alleviated human suffering to a great extent. By spreading awareness about health and hygiene, vaccinations, spraying of medicines and other such measures, certain diseases have been reduced, and have been ‘nipped in the bud’. Like medicine, the role of the legal system of a country is also to alleviate human suffering. So far, the Indian legal system has concentrated on ‘Remedial Measures’, rather than adopt a preventive approach. The existing courts in India are flooded with cases. The number of pending cases in the courts of Gujarat is 23,00,000. At the same time, the citizens are less aware about their legal rights, and fear the system.
The objective of this project is to draw a parallel between two disciplines which have similar objectives. Our hypothesis is to test whether similar paths can be followed and lessons be learnt by the Indian legal system from the Preventive and Social Medicine. We also aim to submit recommendations to the Legal Department and the Registry of the Courts to put the hypothesis in practice.
RFG is working on this paper drawing parallels between preventive medicine and law under the guidance of Professor Dileep Mavalankar of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.