Ignorance of law is not an excuse

The notion of Legal literacy is based on the principle that every individual must be aware of their rights and obligations. The maxim ‘ignorantia juris non-excusat,’ or ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse,’ implies that the Court presumes that every party is aware of the law and hence cannot claim ignorance of the law as a defence to escape liability. Everyone is supposed to know their duties first then they can claim their rights. Duties and rights are correlative to each other, so when a person wants to have something done for him, he must first perform his duty first. In every country a person is supposed to know the law of the land related to every damn thing. The rights of vulnerable group (which mainly includes women, children and differently abled people) is a debatable topic but unfortunately a large section of society doesn’t know the rights of this group. Every day we come across through many heart wrenching news related to this group, either a woman is killed by her in laws for dowry or a child is abused by monsters present in the society.
Schools going girls or women at workplace are being harassed or molested on daily basis but very few among them raise their voice because most of them don’t know their rights and their duties towards society. Keeping silence is also a violation of moral duties, But it must be kept in mind rights also bring some obligations and the laws which protect the rights of this vulnerable group shall not be misused. So, it can be said that a person who has violated any law cannot make the ignorance of law as a ground for his/her release. State is having an obligation to aware the common people about the laws. Know your laws first as we are surrounded by them.
(The author is lecturer at Law College Sopore. Views are his own)
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