Ebook: The Key to Indian Practice A summary of the Code of Civil Procedure

The province of law differs from that of ethics. While ethics condemns every sort of

falsehood; law does not punish all falsehoods, but only those that affect the good governance of the state. On referring to the Indian Penal Code, 1860, one finds that che only kinds of falsehoods which are punishable under the Code are perjury, forgery, cheating, and giving false intormation to a public servant in certain matters. At times, law goes beyond ethics, and makes it penal to do an act which may not be objectionable from an ethical point of view. A rule of the road in the United Kingdom and India is that drivers shall keep to the left, and a breach of the rule constitutes an act punishable in both the countries. A different rule prevails on the continent of Europe, for the rule there is that drivers shall keep to the right. Neither of these rules, however, is opposed to ethics.