Mains Marathon

Approach:

• In the introduction, mention the contrast between law and ethics.
• In body explain the core idea of the quote and use examples to show how legal loopholes are exploited in absence of ethical values.
• Conclude suitably.

Introduction:

While law provides a framework of minimum enforceable rules, ethics represents conscience-driven conduct that aspires to higher moral values. In governance, absence of ethics often leads to exploitation of legal grey areas, defeating the spirit of law.

Body:

Difference Between Law and Ethics:

Aspect	Law	Ethics
Nature	Codified, enforceable by the state	Unwritten, based on societal and personal values
Objective	Maintain order and prevent wrongdoing	Promote goodness, justice, and fairness
Compliance	External, enforced by punishments	Internal, guided by conscience and integrity
Flexibility	Often rigid and slow to evolve	Dynamic and context-sensitive

• Ethics ensures public interest even when the law is silent or ambiguous.
  • For example, lateral entry into civil services is legally permissible but may be misused for favouritism without a transparent and ethical selection process.
• Legal compliance without ethical commitment enables manipulation of rules for personal or political gain.
  • Electoral bonds, although legally sanctioned, were criticised by the Supreme Court (2024) for enabling opaque political funding, compromising electoral integrity.
• Corporate governance failures often stem from legal loopholes exploited without ethical accountability.
  • The IL&FS crisis and Satyam scam involved compliance on paper but ignored ethical duties like financial transparency and stakeholder responsibility.
• Administrative discretion becomes problematic when ethics is absent.
  • Discretionary powers in land acquisition or environmental clearances are often legally justified but ethically questionable, as seen in cases like Vedanta in Niyamgiri.
• Law may not prohibit, but ethics demands action.
  • Civil servants are not legally bound to work beyond hours, but ethical commitment requires them to address humanitarian crises, public grievances, etc., as seen in the 2013 Uttarakhand floods.
• Laws may permit technical exemptions but ethics prevents moral abdication.
  • Companies claiming CSR exemption on technical grounds despite large profits avoid ethical responsibility towards society, undermining the spirit of Section 135 of the Companies Act.
• Whistleblower protection laws exist, but ethical governance is needed to encourage disclosures.
  • In the Vyapam scam, legal protections failed; absence of ethical culture led to fear and silence.

Conclusion:

While law sets the floor, ethics raises the ceiling of governance. A system governed solely by law but lacking ethics becomes prone to manipulation and moral decay. Only when ethical values guide the implementation of laws can governance truly serve the public good, ensure accountability, and preserve constitutional morality.