“Law is a response of the State to the changing social requirements”.

Comment.
Social requirements are never constant but dynamic as they keep on changing with time. Law
is capable of adoption to these changing needs and new needs of the society. Law has
undergone progressive changes to serve the changing needs of the society. Social
requirements and Law are interlinked and go hand in hand.
Social changes are necessary within the society for development.One great feature of law is
that it adapts itself to the changing needs of society and maintains stability when the rapid
alterations which may disturb the harmony in the society.

As, if law is greatly advance of, or greatly behind, the trends of change in the society, it remain
unenforceable. If it is in harmony with the processes of change, it accelerates and
institutionalises changes.
In India, every session of Parliament and State Legislature introduces the Bills to amend the
Act(s) or enact Act(s). On the other hand, where, any question of facts comes before the court,
judiciary interpret the law according to the requirement of the society.
Law is reactive in nature as it is a response of the Government to the changing social
requirements.
For example, in past decade’s perception of society and laws about untouchability, women's
rights, religion, marriage, sex, government have undergone tremendous amount of change.

With the advancement of technology, new laws have been made. For e.g. The Information
Technology Act, 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of the Indian
Parliament notified on 17 October 2000. It is the primary law in India dealing
with cybercrime and electronic commerce.

Social interdependence is inevitable for all the human beings– keeping this social requirement
in view the supreme court of India has made the law that transgender people would be
recognised on all official documents under a separate "third gender" category. This means
that now, for the first time, there are government jobs and college places for transgender
people.

Social requirements have different objectives, one of the most important is to make our
“Society” more civilised and more liberal. Social reforms are step by step process.
For instance in past decades social requirement was to improve the condition of women. So,
Law prevented the exploitation of women and improve the condition of women -

The evil practice of “SATI” was declared illegal and punishable by criminals court as culpable
homicide,
‘The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Ac (1856) legalised the marriage of widows and
declared issues from such marriages as legitimate.

The remarkable features of the Hindu Succession Act (1956) are recognition of
the right of women to inherit property of an intestate equally with men and
abolition of the life estate of female heirs.

This has also changed the family composition as daughters and sons have been
made equal even in the matter of in heritance. The extension of maternity
benefits to unmarried women is also gradually changing the meaning of family.

On the other hand in today’s time when women have equal employment
opportunities further improvements are incorporated like extension of
maternity leave from 12 weeks to 24 weeks.

Besides, various laws were passed that improved the conditions of women in
December 1829 the practice of sati was declared illegal and punishable by
criminals court as culpable homicide.

This helped to wipe out the evil practice of sati, though stray cases might have
occurred here and there.

‘The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Ac (1856) legalised the marriage of widows and
declared issues from such marriages as legitimate.

The shared Act (1930) provided for penal action in marriage of boys under 18
and of girls under14. This provided legal protection to those individuals who
resented early marriages.

The Constitution refuses to recognise the distinctions of religions, sect, caste,

sex etc. in the matter of the opportunities of civil life. It has largely mitigated a
number of evils resulting from the pluralistic nature of India society with regard
to religion and caste.

Freedom of belief as a Fundamental Rights has made religion a personal choice

rather than its earlier compulsive and all-pervasive nature for a family or a
group. Untouchability has been rendered a criminal offence.
Endogamous nature of casteism is now on the wane as inter-marriages, even
inter religious ones (The Special Marriage Act. 1954) have been legalised.

Reservations in jobs and freedom in the choice of vocations have encouraged

vertical mobility of many families, irrespective of their caste of class affiliations.

The Hindu Marriage Act (1955) has given a jolt to the traditional nature of the
institution of marriage i.e. marriage being indissoluble by containing the
provision for divorce.

The remarkable features of the Hindu Succession Act (1956) are recognition of
the right of women to inherit property of an intestate equally with men and
abolition of the life estate of female heirs.

This has also changed the family composition as daughters and sons have been
made equal even in the matter of in heritance. The extension of maternity
benefits to unmarried women is also gradually changing the meaning of family.

Various labour legislations like the Factories Act (1948) the Industrial Disputes
Act (1947) the Trade Unions At(1928) etc. improved the status of the working
class and brought them at par with the bourgeois class of capitalists.

It is correct that law is an instrument of social change, law changes its shape according to the
requirement of society or society changes the law through enactment of statutes. In India, every session
of Parliament and State Legislature introduces the Bills to amend the Act(s) or enact Act(s). On the
other hand, where, any question of facts comes before the court, judiciary (especially higher judiciary)
is interpreting the law according to the requirement of society.

Social changes are necessary within society, for development. But this change can be made by the tool
of law otherwise, it is very difficult to clear the hurdle of custom and usage. The society is in the habit
of doing the things, if, you want to change that, then law is the strongest instrument. If law prohibits any
act, then it has to make it punishable. In India, law prohibits the Sati, child marriage, child labour, bonded
labour, and advocates free and compulsory primary education, video-conferencing as valid witness,
maintenance to Muslim women and children, intra-state adoption, rehabilitation of the child of prostitute,
prostitute are victim not accused, protection of women from sexual harassment at working places,
compensation to the victim of crime, etc.

"Change is the law of nature what is to-day shall be different from

what it would be to-morrow. The social structure is subject to
incessant change. Society is an ever changing phenomenon, growing,
decaying, renewing and accommodating itself to changing conditions
and suffering vast modifications in the course of time. The word
"change" denotes a difference in anything observed over some period
of time. "Social change is a term used to describe variations in, or
modifications of, any aspect of social processes, social patterns, social
interaction or Social Organization."
Social changes are chiefly those of modification or of replacement
and hence the same can be put into two categories i.e.
(1)modifications or (2) replacements. For example
our ideas about untouchability, women's rights, religion, marriage,
sex, government and same may undergo further modification or
replacement in future.
Social changes can be brought about by various methods. The
social change can be brought by preaching of religions, by launching
social reform movements like one done by Raja Ram Mohan Roy,
Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Justice Ranade, Shahu Maharaj, Jotiba
Phoole, Gandhiji, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and other such prominent social
thinkers. But such efforts have no legal obligations or force of law for
remedial measures in cases where individuals do not agree to a
prescribed social behaviour and conduct. Such optional, sweet will
obedience was found not bearing desired fruits in right direction and
therefore need arose to formulate laws purely to bring about social
change prescribing and providing necessary penal mechanism in case
of not confirming to change and violating provisions of such law
which aimed at social change from extant social process as
procedures and practices. A cursory quick look back on history of
Dalits / Scheduled Castes / Harijans / Depressed Class/ Shudras /Ati-
Shudras/ Antyajas as they were variously called or addressed
contemptuously by fellow Indians will give an interesting scenario of
social change that took place during the passage of time and would be
of immense importance from this study's view point.

As we know, in this world everything changes and nothing remains

absolutely static in its entirety. Similarly social setup changes, social
norms change, social mores, traditions, customs and social structure
also continuously undergo changes.

Two fold objectives of law to serve is, firstly, to keep up stability and afford orderly life in the society.
Secondly, to persuade social change by changing itself according to the needs of the changing society.

Besides, various laws were passed that improved the conditions of women in
December 1829 the practice of sati was declared illegal and punishable by criminals
court as culpable homicide.

This helped to wipe out the evil practice of sati, though stray cases might have
occurred here and there.

‘The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Ac (1856) legalised the marriage of widows and
declared issues from such marriages as legitimate.

The shared Act (1930) provided for penal action in marriage of boys under 18 and of
girls under14. This provided legal protection to those individuals who resented early
marriages.

The Constitution refuses to recognise the distinctions of religions, sect, caste, sex
etc. in the matter of the opportunities of civil life. It has largely mitigated a number of
evils resulting from the pluralistic nature of India society with regard to religion and
caste.

Freedom of belief as a Fundamental Rights has made religion a personal choice

rather than its earlier compulsive and all-pervasive nature for a family or a group.
Untouchability has been rendered a criminal offence.

Endogamous nature of casteism is now on the wane as inter-marriages, even inter

religious ones (The Special Marriage Act. 1954) have been legalised.

Reservations in jobs and freedom in the choice of vocations have encouraged

vertical mobility of many families, irrespective of their caste of class affiliations.

The Hindu Marriage Act (1955) has given a jolt to the traditional nature of the
institution of marriage i.e. marriage being indissoluble by containing the provision for
divorce.
The remarkable features of the Hindu Succession Act (1956) are recognition of the
right of women to inherit property of an intestate equally with men and abolition of
the life estate of female heirs.

This has also changed the family composition as daughters and sons have been
made equal even in the matter of in heritance. The extension of maternity benefits to
unmarried women is also gradually changing the meaning of family.

Various labour legislations like the Factories Act (1948) the Industrial Disputes Act
(1947) the Trade Unions At(1928) etc. improved the status of the working class and
brought them at par with the bourgeois class of capitalists.

The critics opine that merely the enactment of laws and even their enforcement, has
limited impact on the society. They say that the rural areas are hardly affected by
such legislations, and even in the urban areas these laws are not successful on any
substantial scale.

According to them, the transformation of society is an evolutionary process, not a

revolutionary one. So, law may lose its sanctity and graces because of the non-
compliance on the part of the society.

What they emphasise on more is that unless and until a law gets the sanction of the
society as a whole it may have no effect. And logically, if the collective psyche is
ready for a change there is no need for a law.

Society always seeks to protect its interest. So, whenever anything is done in its
favour, it cheerfully accepts the offer. Unless the law therefore reflects the hopes,
aspirations and progress of the society it can never take effect.

Hence the law as per the choice of a small group of ruling individual, without winning
the confidence of the masses, is bound to fail in its objective.

We even examples of laws meant to do good to the society having failed. But this
happens only when there is a wide gap between the governing authorities and the
people especially in regard to communication.

Social changes as causes of legal changes

 In a broad theoretical framework, social change has been slow enough to make custom the principal
source of law. Law could respond to social change over decades or even centuries. Today the tempo
of social change accelerated to a point where today’s assumptions may not be valid even in a few
years from now. The emergence of new risks to the individual as a result of the decrease of the
various family functions, including the protective function, has led to the creation of legal innovations
to protect the individuals in modern society. Eg provisions of workers compensation, unemployment
insurance, old-age pensions. Many sociologists and legal scholars assert on the basis of a large
amount of accumulated data that technology is one of the great moving forces for change in law in
three ways: (read page 335 paragraph 3). The computer and easy access to cyberspace, especially
internet, also have inspired legislation on both the federal and the state levels to safeguard privacy,
protects against abuse of credit information and computer crime. Change in law may be induced by a
voluntary and gradual shift in community values and attitudes. [eg. People may think that poverty is
bad, and laws should be created to reduce it in some way.] Alternations in social conditions,
technology knowledge values, and attitudes then may induce legal change. in such cases law
is reactive and follows social change. However, changes in law are only one of many responses to
social change. Additionally, laws can be considered both as reactive and proactive in social change.

Law as an instrument of social change

The conversion of Rome from republic to empire could not have been accomplished except by means
of explicit legal decree buttressed by the doctrine of imperial sovereignty. Law, far from being a
reflection of social reality, is a powerful means of accomplishing reality – that is, of fashioning it or
making it.

 The Soviet Union succeeded in making enormous changes in society by the use of law.
 In Spain law was used to reform agrarian labor and employment relations.
 China also managed to moderate through law its population growth and as a result devote more of its
resources to economic development and modernization.

The law, through legislative and administrative responses to new social conditions and ideas, as well
as through judicial re-interpretations of constitutions, statutes or precedents, increasingly not only
articulates but sets the course for major social change. Attempted social change, through law, is a
basic trait of the modern world. Many authors consider law as a desirable necessary and highly
efficient means of inducing change, preferable to other instruments of change. In present-day
societies, the role of law in social change is of more than theoretical interest. In many areas of life
such as education, race relations, housing, transportation, energy utilization, protection of the
environment, and crime prevention, the law and litigation are important instruments of change. Law
plays an importantindirect role in social change by shaping various social institutions, which in turn
have a direct impact on society. [eg. Mandatory school attendance upgraded the quality of the labor
force, which in turn played a direct role in social change by contributing to an increased rate of
industrialization. The law interacts in many cases directly with basic social institutions, constituting a
direct relationship between law and social change]. Social change through litigation has always been
an important feature in the US. Whether the change produced by such action is considered
‘constructive’ or ‘destructive,’ the fact remains that law can be a highly effective device for producing
social change.