Shillong, Oct 18: Bollywood would be left scratching its head to replace one of its favourite and repetitive dialogues: “kanoon andha hota hai,” because the ‘Lady of Justice’ statue can now see after her blindfold was removed.
Movies after movies have depicted the blindfolded Lady of Justice statue and various dialogues like “yeh andha kanoon (law is blind)” were belted out with high passion. Even a movie ‘Andha Kanoon’ featuring Big B was a hit. The song Andha Kanoon from the same movie was an even bigger hit.
But no longer would the law be blind (at least in Bollywood parlance) with the removal of the blindfold. With this one move India is trying to shed its colonial legacy together with a new set of laws – Indian Penal Code with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Lady of Justice statue in the Supreme Court not only had its blindfold removed reportedly at the orders of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, but also has replaced a sword with the Constitution on the left hand while the right hand balances the scale of justice.
The blindfold on the statue depicted that the law is equal before everyone in terms of wealth, power etc as it cannot see the difference. On the left hand was a sword, which symbolised stringent punishment for violating the law.
Reportedly, Justice Chandrachud wanted the change because he believes that the law “sees” everyone equally, with or without the blindfold, and the sword which symbolises violence was replaced.
The constitution has been placed in the left hand to symbolise that justice is dispensed to everyone as per the Constitution of the country. The scale in the right hand has been retained to represent balance, depicting that the Indian courts hear both sides of the arguments and presentation of facts and evidence before passing its judgements.
