NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY : ISSUES OF UNDERSTANDING BY THE LEGAL COMMUNITY AND GENERAL PUBLIC

 

 

By

 

Y .S. Rajan

 

Principal Adviser, CII

 

 

 

 

 

To be presented at an All India Seminar on

 

‘Access to Justice’ on

 

6th, 7th & 8th April 2007, New Delhi

 

 

 

organised by

 

The Confederation of Indian Bar

 

Working Session 14

 

‘Access to Justice and Judicial Activism’

 

 I. INTRODUCTION

 

1.     Many aspects of Indian society and polity have not kept pace with the developments of science and technology (S&T) around the world and its rapid deployment into products and services which enter into the lives of ordinary people. Though Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 articulated the famous statement “The future belongs to those who make friends with science”, the constitution of India has no mention of science and technology. Though the words ‘scientific temper’ have been introduced later, very little consensus will be around what those words mean.

2.     By and large science and technology have been developed as a stand alone system in the country and most of the technologies and systems have entered into the Indian life as embodied technologies in the imported equipment and systems or licensed companies or copied equipment and systems. So a general feeling was / is that any beneficial / useful requirements from science and technologies can be bought from abroad. Indian pursuit of science and technology in select institutions and laboratories, was mostly an act of faith and commitment by Governments. Most economic policies did not have any clue to integrate Indian public funded S&T and resultant research and development (R&D) into the Indian industrial and operational systems (even for military and security systems). For the political leaders, it was / is more fashionable to reassert the national commitment to S&T and to praise our scientists.

3.     Occasional launches of missiles, satellites and the likes give a fleeting national euphoria; similarly failures attract momentary criticisms which are soon forgotten.

4.     General public understanding of science is mixed and often vague and confused. Much of the curiosity is around individual health and such information is obtained through media. In the recent years advent of IT applications in India have introduced certain awakening about the uses of S&T albeit in a shallow way.

5.     The debates about environment, new introductions like transgenic seeds or HIV/AIDS etc have often followed the trends of the Developed English speaking world. Often the debates are borrowed from the magazines or media of the developed countries and repeated here.

6.     The legal community has not been an exception to this general status in India. As any “general” laws or patterns will have “exceptions”, there may be a few isolated cases.

7.     Even the existence of Indian Patent Act 1970 did not create many inroads into science as the number of patents filed in India till recently have been very low. The fact that almost every chapter of the “Dunkel draft (which were fiercely attacked or defended) contained many imbedded scientific and technological possibilities was understood only by a very few persons in the country (even amongst scientists). Later when they surfaced as operational items, there was hue and cry (e.g. azodyetraces in leather products, phytosanitary conditions referred in Agriculture section). Most Indian analysts then were concerned about the subsidy elements of western world’s agriculture and were preparing themselves to concentrate the debates on subsidies to get scoring points for other areas in which they had interest (like TRIPs – Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights etc.) Several years later phytosanitary conditions were enforced and caused real life constraints for Indian exports. These are parts of the WTO regime and are now slowly sinking in into business houses, and others.

8.     One can cite many such examples. Looking at many rulings by the courts on issues having deeper connections with scientific and technological knowledge, one is left with a feeling that many members of the bar or judiciary might not have been comfortable with the issues and arguments handled. There would have been an uneasy dependence on scientists and academicians or on expert Committees or some institutions (ex-officio) or in some cases on amicus curiae.

9.     The legal or judicial instincts or intuitions based on deeper experience and insights on other time-tested legal issues (civil, criminal, constitutional, human rights, corporate, political etc) might have been absent or feeble when such science or technology issues are taken up by the legal and judicial system.

10.   Such a situation might have been acceptable  in the past. But the rate at which S&T is changing worldwide, within a generation, there are several disruptive changes in concepts and applications. Hence, it is essential for the judiciary and legal experts as well as the general public to understand deeper connections of science and technologies.

11.   Such an understanding cannot be left to media hypes or prejudices nor to the activists of various hues.

12.   Ability to possess such an independent knowledge of S&T and the new developments, will be as vital to the liberty of the individual and his / her (legal) rights, as simple literacy was / is even now for simple access to justice. Thumb-impression making millions of Indians are at the mercy of so many other literate intermediaries. Their access to justice is crucially linked to these intermediaries. With S&T invading many aspects of day to day life, governance, security, commerce, health etc., the “illiteracy” even spreads into the lawyers, judges and others. That could lead to a fragile dependence on a few S&T literate – intermediaries; also a few persons, lobbyists or others, could hijack arguments even while the most scientifically knowledgeable persons may decide to be silent.

13.   This paper is an attempt to address some of these issues, especially in the Indian context.

 

II.    S&T AND LEGAL AND JUDICIAL SYSTEMS

 

14.   Science & Technology interacts, affects or impacts legal and judicial systems in the following ways :

(i)              S&T findings helping to find more objective evidence e.g. forensic investigations. Acceptance of DNA tests as concrete evidence a few years ago have helped in  criminal investigations.

(ii)           Use of S&T tools for speeding up the legal and judicial processes and also for increasing or simplifying the accessibility to the public.

(iii)        Crimes in the S&T based systems e.g. cyber based crimes, intrusion of privacy through advanced technology sensors, or use of subtle chemicals or medicines to create troubles to other individuals etc.

(iv)         Ethics relating to development and use of S&T e.g. in biomedical research.

(v)            Disputes between scientists or funders  of scientists & technologists and the S&T personnel on issues relating non-delivery, breach of confidentiality, etc. These are likely to increase more as private sector investment in S&T is growing up and rewards from S&T are increasing for S&T personnel.

(vi)         Broader issues of S&T based systems affecting nature, society, human rights, etc Various forms of “green” activism, organ transplants, cloning of organs, self-replicating mechanisms (soon to come in future) etc will fall in this category.

(vii)      Soon in the medium term issues relating to misinformation and disinformation in S&T matters may become issues for judicial consideration. Common people may complain against scientists misleading them. Or websites or media may be sued for “untruthful” contents which have impacted lives of people and so on.

15.   For brevity we will limit this paper to the above seven issues.

 

II(A)   S&T Helping to find more objective evidence

 

16.   India went through a phase in 1970’s and even in early eighties when signature with a ball point pen was not accepted in banks or for many government documents. Now for the past few years electronic signatures are accepted with legal validity.

17.   It is commendable that Indian judicial system accepted DNA tests for evidence.

18.   Neuroscience’s are advancing very fast with various brain mapping systems and therefore related researches into human consciousness. In view of the fact that extremist and terrorist linked crimes are on the rise and are likely to increase in the coming decades, it will be important that the legal and judicial system understand the uncertainties and risks involved in using such scanning systems to understand human intentions and use them as evidence. There are, of course, issues of ethics. If a more objective evidence (more reliable evidence) is available about criminal intentions (especially crimes against society) are available, would it not in public interest to use them rather than use the older type of prolonged investigations ?

19.   Similarly if system based on sensors (which can pick up “smells” of explosives, or capture even in night or in dark, the infrared images of individuals) and for picking up of audio signals (speeches etc) of individuals (more sophisticated systems of tapping conversations) are available,would it serve the purposes of justice better than the older methods. There has to be some redefinition of what privacy means for such persons who plot against others or society.

20.   Presently for the poor people, access to justice is very limited due to the very process of filling the applications and presenting them in particular courts, in particular formats. Modern developments in electronics and computers and their micro miniaturasitation do possess possibilities where the common person can record their complaints and applications in voice form – which through translation & other means can be converted  into authentic application or become evidence in the courts. Should not Indian legal / judicial system explore and even develop systems for helping poor/illiterate persons through S&T systems? (It is going to be a sad fact that even for the next decade or two a large majority of Indians will have very little functional literacy even though their verbal and non-verbal articulations will be very good in their traditional forms).

21.   Various other technologies available in detection of crime are pattern recognition of blurred pictures, use of sweat or other  fluids for identification of the criminals or witnesses or speech recognition etc. It is important that the judiciary and legal system understand these processes well in order to come to their own conclusions about their use, risks and reliability and use as many of them as possible to speed up the judicial processes.

 

II(B)  Use of S&T tools for speeding up legal and judicial processes and also for increasing and simplifying the accessibility to the public.

 

22.   Some methods of speeding up the legal and judicial (L&J) processes and access have been described in the earlier paragraphs. They are more to do with having objective evidence speedily.

23.   In addition to these, in view of the vastness of the country and loss of time in appearing in courts, it will be useful to consider whether electronic presence can be accepted (i.e. through teleconferencing) with due processes of electronic or other forms of certification/verification that the persons present are authentic and are not influenced by others while they are interacting.

24.   In addition to the above, as is already in practice in some States of India, it will help the public if court cases and their timings are accessible in villages and towns in advance through e-systems so that they can plan their appearances. It should be noted loss of each day is loss of income for ordinary persons. When cases are not heard, they have to come again. Similarly, the authenticated rulings may be available near-instantaneously to those residing far away from the courts and they be treated as equally valid legal documents.

25.   Similarly, there should be provisions for filing petitions and review petitions through electronic means from a distance.

 

II(C)   Crimes in the S&T based systems

 

26.   As human knowledge advances, it can be used for beneficial and also for devilish purposes. Nowadays at least the words like cyber crimes have become well known and some laws are under-force though enforcing systems are weak (as is perhaps so in other simple areas of human life such as traffic offences or other civic regulations). Some of the cyber crimes may be socially conditioned such as the perceptions of what constitutes pornography or what is socially, politically offensive.

27.   But much more serious and universal forms of cyber crimes are intrusion in other’s financial transactions, cyber robbery, attacking or mutilating other person’s cyber assets or creating images or voices of other persons through cyber means without their knowledge and damaging their reputation etc. There are many other possibilities. These crimes keep up with the advent of new anti-cyber attack systems and software. We have witnessed the growth the cyber security measures from simple anti-virus detection systems to complex fire walls.

28.   There are now other forms of crimes using the cyber world. Since cyber world is mostly invisible to the police and other security personnel, these systems are used (even with firewall protections) by the underworld criminals, extremists and terrorists for anything between planning global crimes, global terrorist operations including transfer of cash. How much empowering can be done to the State to intrude into such operations? What is the balance between national security and individual liberty? Though this dilemma is time immemorial, the advances in S&T and advances in the fatal impact of terrorist attacks (due to growth of technological equipment to commit crimes) have made these issues very real.

29.   Coming down to other areas, since DNA and other biological (including neurological) evidences are increasingly used, criminal elements may introduce newer techniques (with the use of expert S&T persons !) to contaminate or mislead these processes. In the coming years, the legal and justice systems have to be alive to such types of  crimes as well.

 

II(D)   Ethics relating to the development of use of S&T

 

30.   For areas pertaining to contact with human body, food, drugs, cosmetics, medical implants etc there are fairly well evolved guidelines based on good ethical principles. Most medicines carry fairly detailed information regarding contra indications, risks etc. (It is another matter how well people, even well educated ones, understand them !). By the very nature of epistemology, it is impossible for any individual or group of human beings to know everything about the impact of an action in advance, though similar types of activities have been tested and repeated many times under controlled conditions and field conditions. When it comes to human body or other living organisms, diversity is the key reality. Therefore risks cannot be made zero even during limited periods. However one can try to minimise them to the lowest probability with the knowledge available at a given point. Every gap in knowledge (i.e. ignorance !) leads to further searches and researches and new discoveries (new knowledge)… then new gaps …. the onward cycle goes on.

31.   This does not mean that these activities have to be left to judgements of individual researchers alone. Reasonable social controls through well laid out ethical guidelines are necessary especially when S&T is growing fast. I was fortunate to participate in one such major national exercise by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for Biomedical Researches in India under the Chairmanship of former Chief Justice M N Venkatachaliah. The exercise was over a period of 3 years with intense deliberations, debates etc and was finalised in 2000. The work had the benefit of the work done abroad including the guidelines of World Health Organisation (WHO). But the ICMR work did include the Indian systems of medicine and Indian context.

32.        Author is also aware of the eminent work done by Prof. M S Valiathan since mid-eighties to introduce regulations for biomedical implants – it took years to get the idea accepted through developed countries have full fledged laws ! After many frustrating years, I understand the matter is under consideration. The reason I am pointing this episode, is to suggest to those in legal and judiciary (l&j) systems to be proactive and raise suo motto such issues in other areas of new S&T activities. International Law Association addresses many areas of new scientific & technological findings. There are also many focussed realistic discussions on ethical issues of newer areas of S&T. There is no demonising nor divinising any area. They are discussed in a realistic and pragmatic context of society and science. Humankind cannot shut scientific  and technological progress, but at the same time all decisions cannot be left to a small group of scientists and science – managers who may not be (often are not!) well versed in social issues. But an anti-science approach is also equally counterproductive. There are many excellent socially conscious scientists, especially in the Western world, who have made brilliant contributions to such issues. We have a few such scientists in India as well.

33.        There are new ethical issues relating to self replicating systems which may soon become reality due to advances in material sciences. There are many issues relating to the synthetic biology and fast emerging neuroscience liked to human consciousness. There are also many health hazard aspects of nano-particles under discussion. I should also caution that our earlier approach “Let everybody in the world do, experiment ….. we will enter much later, studying all the consequences and then evolve a unique Indian system”, will be dangerous to the progress of Indian people. Such an approach to introduction of fertility control pill for women during the sixties caused a lot of set back to the Indian effort towards population control. Indian poverty would have been much less and prosperity much better if we had steadily controlled our population since 1960’s in a relatively simple manner. (In one of the lectures in the Indian Science Congress – I think it was in Baroda – former Director General ICMR now late Dr A S Paintal pointed this example out as unethical practice by the Indian Scientists; he said that they misguided the policy makers for carving out their own research empires for new Indian paths).

34.   I believe that l&j community can play a positive and neutral (but socially beneficial) role by discussing various S&T developments in India and worldwide and evolving guidelines for practitioners of science & technology and policy makers. As more and more S&T knowledge is and will be in private ownership worldwide (and may be so in Indians too soon if the benefits of S&T have to flow to society!), it is all the more important that such ethical guidelines are evolved taking into such  discussion the corporate persons as well.

 

II(E)  Disputes between Scientists and funders of scientists and technologies

 

35.   Science and technology are no longer the products of romantic visionaries. Even in the past, a few centuries ago, when the modern science was growing, there were many cases of rivalries and unethical practices done by discoverers and inventors. In the modern world while there are many organisational and legal systems in place to regulate the transactions between scientists within themselves, with users, with funders, with publishers etc., in the current period S&T inventions and discoveries give huge sums of money and prestige to individuals. Therefore competition is high. The volumes of scientific papers, patents etc are so high that it is difficult to keep track of each one of them. Violations of works of one person by others by copying, plagiarizing etc are not very rare. In societies where scientific community is strong, peer group processes detect these.

36.        Since a large amount of S&T is done in private sector, the issues of confidentiality even after the scientist or technologist has left the company, are important – it is often a life long agreement that the inventor / discoverer will not disclose those parts without the permission of the employer in whose company she / he made the research findings. Nowadays there are many scientist-entrepreneurs who are simultaneously a researcher or academic, and also running their companies (with due permissions and disclosures). How strict they follow the ethics of confidentiality ? Are they not passing on the results of findings of his/her research student in the Institute or University to his / her company without the approval of the student or  the Institute/University authorities ?   Sometimes the professor may be very ethical but jealous colleagues may accuse him / her.

37.        I am pointing out a few of these possibilities, mainly to emphasise that in future many such litigations may come to the Indian courts. Note there are about 250 foreign companies which have set up high class R&D Centers in India employing many Indian scholars / youth. They will have many contractual requirements. Indian private sector is investing in R&D. Are Indian l&j systems prepared to handle these ? Such cases require a deeper understanding of the processes of science and  technology and understanding of the working and minds of S&T personnel. They are different from the usual administrative or contractual breaches. Instead of depending only on external intermediaries, l&j systems may have to develop people who can address the issues themselves, in the interest of delivering justice.

 

II(F)   Broader issues of S&T based systems affecting nature, society, human rights etc.

 

38.   There are many issues taking centre stage for agitation, activism and media publicity relating transgenic seeds, climate change, pollution in beverages, nuclear power, etc. Not all of them are altruistic, or truth seeking. There are some well-intentioned persons; some ill-informed persons; some intelligent ideologues; some driven by lobbyists; some fame seekers; some front end of commercial interests or political interests etc. Often the debates are blurred or of screaming type. When deeper scientific issues are involved with many uncertainties, different view points or schools of thought are not brought out. Most person intend to put forth their arguments forcefully and are not interested in pointing out scientific uncertainties in their own statements.

39.   As far as media is concerned such a sober debate is not perceived to be conducive to increasing TRP ratings in electronic media or for circulation in print media. After all they are, in the final analysis, market driven and exposed to severe competition.

40.   What then happens to the general public ? Or the impressions on general viewing or reading public ? Can the judiciary afford to go by such perceptions (as they may bias their insights)? While scientific uncertainties regarding the observations and the causal linkages are high, various lobbies have jumped into conclusions about green house gases. The very same CFC’s were praised as wonder chemicals to save humanity from impending Ice Age during 1970’s. I am not suggesting that debates and lobbying should not go on. Life cannot be sedate, sitting for new observations to come by. The process of scientific epistemology will take from one ignorance – gap to a new – knowledge and to reach newer ignorance – gap (s). Complex phenomena are multi-dimensional and multi-parametric.

41.   Even when debates go on, it is important for l&j systems to just know that the conclusions are not definitive to be “black-and-white” truth as often made out to be. In the context of global warming it will be interesting to read a brief report in Times of India dated 7th March, New Delhi edition titled “Researches rubbish green house theory – Scientists claim Global Warming Isn’t Man-made But is due to Solar Activity”. I do not currently possess the expertise or interest to study through all the claims – which may be a full time work with teams of multidisciplinary persons. But one thing is sure : scientific uncertainties are too high to pass a judgement in favour of one or the other ! But sometimes popular upsurge through lobbying, media, and well funded activism, can tilt scales against truthful positions. Remember the certainty of “Plague in Surat” some time ago !

42.   My only suggestion is that in the coming years and decades, many such controversies will emerge. The l&j may be drawn into them also. It will be better if l&j community creates a network of knowledgeable and sober persons within l&j community and outside it, so that they can have a reasonable idea about the complex, multi-dimensional, multi-parametric issues often with severe observational (experimental) constraints.

 

II(G) Issues relating to misinformation and disinformation on S&T matters

 

43.   What is easily accessible may not be the truthful position and what is a truthful position may not be easily accessible. Such is the nature of knowledge on S&T matters in the current fast changing world (which speed to a good extent is due to progress of S&T) ! It is the greatest irony of modern times. Making modern developments in many superspecialities is not an easy task. Best scientists/technologists are not necessarily the best communicators, not even good at it. Also narrow fields cause even “language” (lingo) barriers !

44.   I have addressed these issues in some detail in a book written by me titled : “Empowering Indians with economic, business and technology strengths for the Twenty First Century” (Revised Reprint 2002) Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi under Chapter 13, Science Communication in the Twenty First Century. Without even attempting to give a brief summary of what is given there, I would like to give a quote of Gell-Mann Murray, a nobel laureate in Physics, which comes in the end of that Chapter.

45.   The quote from the book :

“At this point, the author would like to quote from ‘The Quark and the Jaguar – Adventures in the simple and the complex’ by Murray Gell-Mann (1994) (Ref.3).

Quote: “Unfortunately, that information explosion is in great part a misinformation explosion. All of us are exposed to huge amounts of material, consisting of data, ideas, and conclusions – much of it wrong or misunderstood or just plain confused. There is a crying need for more intelligent commentary and review.

We must attach a higher prestige to that very creative act, the writing or serious review articles and books that distinguish the reliable from the unreliable and systematize and encapsulate, in the form of reasonably successful theories and other schemata, what does seem reliable. If an academic publishes a novel research result at the frontier of knowledge in science or scholarship, he or she may reap a reward in the form of a Professorship or a promotion, even if the result is later shown to be entirely wrong. However, clarifying the meaning of what has already been done (or picking out what is worth learning from what is not) is much less likely to advance an academic career. Humanity will be much better off when the reward structure is altered so that selection pressures on careers favour the sorting out of information as well as its acquisition.…

But how do we reconcile the critical examination of ideas, including the identification and labeling of error with tolerance – and even celebration and preservation – of cultural diversity?….

Yet the difficulty goes far deeper. Many of the local patterns of thought and behaviour are associated not only with harmful error and destructive particularism but specifically with harassment and persecution of those who espouse the universalizing scientific and secular culture, with its emphasis on rationality and the rights of the human individual. And yet it is within that very culture that one often finds people concerned, as  a matter of principle, with the preservation of cultural diversity.

Somehow the human race has to find ways to respect and make use of the great variety of cultural traditions and still resist the threats of disunity, oppression, and obscurantism that some of those traditions present from time to time”. Unquote

Thus, it is not enough to acquire and master networks and associated gadgets and work stations and the people to person them. All these are useful for science communication; but one has to look much beyond anchored in deeper issues of the world, universe and humanity. The challenges for science communication will come from this and a network of committed persons are required to face these challenges.”

46.   I request the l&j community to ponder over the issues and energise their network which can interact with these other networks as well. It is crucial for 21st Century.

III.   SOCIAL ECONOMIC REALITIES IN INDIA

47.   I have argued in the earlier pages about the need to understand the processes and advances in S&T. I have pleaded for a deeper involvement by l&j community in matters of science & technology and not depend upon external intermediaries alone. I have suggested evolution of guidelines on ethical and legal matters on science & technology. These are in addition use of S&T to speed up l&j process and to provide more objective evidence.

48.   When it comes to evolving guidelines and taking pro-active interest in S&T matters, there could be a tendency to adopt many things from the developed world as they have many good rational and logical foundations. They also fit in our legal system which is largely borrowed from the Western liberal traditions. However, I would like to sound a word of caution about the Indian socio economic realities. Blind adoption of Western (European US) standards and practices can cause serious problems to bulk of our people. I would give some examples.

49.   It is a sad fact that all Indians are not equal though in law all are equal. Most Indians do not have the education or income levels to use the processes of law. There are many real obstacles to provide equal access to all Indians. This reality has to be borne in mind especially when it comes to delivery of goods and services to all Indians. Additional legal frameworks should not reduce the availability to ordinary people of goods much more difficult than at present.

50.   I am sadly amused when I read the great debates about the pesticide residues in some elite beverages. How many parts per billion, is seriously discussed. Standalone, they have their merits. Let us think for a while the availability of water to several hundreds of Indians. Even in Delhi most people drink water with various serious contaminations. In villages almost all ponds are polluted. In many places, water is not available or brackish or have serious arsenic or fluoride or iron contamination. Most of the agricultural products in rural areas have chemical or organic or bacterial contamination. One should realise that to provide “cleanliness” as understood and defined in modern scientific terms requires fairly heavy investments in the supply and delivery infrastructure and then are also energy demands (i.e. heat, filter, cool and drink). If a uniform standards are maintained by law for all water, beverages, or agricultural products as per “global” standards, most Indians either will be violating laws daily or will not get any water or vegetable or grain to eat or drink as those with “global” standards will be costly and beyond their reach.

51.   About 100 million Indians are very rich even by European standards. They can afford any types standards (and fads too!). Another 200 million Indians are their knowledge workers or followers. They aspire to be like the 100 million Indians who are their role models. They may complain about prices but will try for the “best” ones. These 300 million can talk in terms of global standards, global excellence. Added to them are Indians abroad, who can afford standards of living of the Western world and take them for granted. I have nothing against all these strata of Indians and I wish them well in all walks of their lives. I also wish that rest of Indians also get at least parts of their benefits, even if they cannot equal them in the next few decades. But today if we set up standards acceptable to 300 million to all Indians, others may be denied of availability.

52.   Let me narrate an incidence about health care. During 1970-73 I was in USA with my wife and a young child as a result of my posting by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) to NASA (National Air & Space Administration of USA). In the allowances given by ISRO, we could only stay in a lower middle class locality. A lady neighbour, who used to help my wife to transition to US life, once got her little finger hurt in a door. The hurt looked serious. But she put some band-aid and took some pain killers. My wife told her to go to a doctor. She replied that if she goes to a doctor, she will have to go through series of tests and end up in a bill of more than 200 US dollars (lots of money then in 1970). Any way she got cured over several days. Fortunately for us we also did not fall sick; we had only a simple medical insurance of Blue Cross, Blue Shield which did not cover many items. But even now what plagues US Medicare system is the high cost of delivery and therefore limitations in access.

53.   While serious analyses and debates address US system, I feel they miss one important issue. The question of medical negligence has, over many years, extended to such an extent, no doctor wants to take any risk. The entire clinical practice is highly structured into protocols. It is more like covering personal risks by referring to many tests and referring to various doctors before final prescriptions are given. The patient (consumer) who is protected by law against negligence has to pay for all these tests which are more to prove that doctors are careful rather than warranted by clinical insights by an experienced doctor. Thank God Indian l&j community have not adopted these practices as models ! Otherwise most government hospitals and low cost private practitioners would have to shut the shops or slow down hundred times lower in intake.

54.   In terms of affordability, there are multiple Indians. The modern global standards require much greater investments which are lacking in services given to most poor Indians. So let us not blindly adopt standards and practices brought from abroad. Even to judge on these matters, the right type of balance required to suit Indian socio economic realities, deeper understanding of S&T systems and their interactions, economic returns etc. is required.

 

CONCLUSION

 

55.   With the rapid growth of S&T worldwide and its penetration into every walk of life, it is necessary to use many applications of S&T to speed up the processes of legal and judicial systems to reach out to many Indians. A few examples are given as to how some new developments can help even illiterate people to access justice provided certain changes are done to the existing procedures by using S&T applications. Also examples are given as to how new emerging S&T applications can help speed up evidences. Some questions are raised about the use of the new systems to identify underground criminals, extremists and terrorists.

In addition to the above, new types of legal cases which may arise due to the fast progress of S&T, are also pointed out. Also the broader issues of impact of S&T on society and individuals and ethical issues in conducting S&T research are raised. Also pointed out how S&T uncertainties and as how activism and media  distort them.

On the whole, the paper points out that legal & judicial community has to learn S&T processes in different contexts and uncertainties of S&T findings. It is also necessary to understand Indian social realities and use of global standards have their economic impact on poor.

It is therefore not enough for l&j community to depend on external intermediaries to understand them. They need to understand them to a level that they can develop insights themselves. It is further suggested that legal & judiciary community develop their own knowledge networks to understand essential elements of S&T on the lines suggested by Murray Gell Mann.