"A mere compliance with law is not enough, the public servant also has to have a well-developed…

Question

"A mere compliance with law is not enough, the public servant also has to have a well-developed sensibility to ethical issues for effective discharge of duties." Do you agree? Explain with the help of two examples, where (i) an act is ethically right, but not legally and (ii) an act is legally right, but not ethically.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Mere legal compliance is necessary but not sufficient, because law is only a floor and ethical sensibility guides officers where rules are silent or unjust. The Salt Satyagraha was ethically right but illegal, while a monsoon slum demolition without rehabilitation is lawful but unethical.

**Introduction**

The 2nd ARC report on Ethics in Governance (2007) observed that rules alone cannot secure integrity. Law tells a public servant what is permitted; ethical sensibility tells them what is right where the rulebook is silent.

**Why Legal Compliance Falls Short**

1. **Law is only a floor**: "No rule was broken" is **Ethical Minimalism**, legality standing in for morality, and it leaves citizens failed by an officer who broke no rule.
2. **Rules cannot foresee everything**: Conscience guides discretion, as when Armstrong Pame built Manipur's "People's Road" in 2012 through public contributions.
3. **Mechanical obedience can hurt**: Refusing a dying patient for want of a document is **Rule-Bound Amoralism**, which Gandhi's Talisman corrects by asking how an act helps the weakest.

**Where Law and Ethics Part Ways**

SKETCH: matrix | Law and Ethics Grid
cols: Legal | Illegal
rows: Ethical | Unethical
tl: Ideal conduct
tr: Salt Satyagraha
bl: Monsoon eviction
br: Bribery

1. **Ethically right, not legally**: The Salt Satyagraha (1930) broke an unjust law; a Collector who opens a godown to feed flood-stranded families before sanction breaches rules yet acts rightly.
2. **Legally right, not ethically**: Demolishing a slum in peak monsoon under a valid order without rehabilitation is lawful but uncompassionate, though Olga Tellis (1985) linked livelihood to Article 21.
3. **Unjust laws**: Enforcing Section 377 IPC was lawful until Navtej Singh Johar (2018).

**Conclusion**

I agree that compliance is necessary but not sufficient: ethical sensibility guides the officer where law is silent or unjust, while still working through lawful channels, as Ambedkar's warning against the "grammar of anarchy" reminds us. Legality joined with conscience earns lasting public trust.

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