Now, the question we have to consider, I submit, is only this. What are the implications of this `due process’? Due process’ is now confined to personal liberty. This clause would enable the courts to examine not only the procedural part, the jurisdiction of the court, the jurisdiction of the legislature, but also the substantive law. When a law has been passed which entitles Government to take away the personal liberty of an individual, the court will consider whether the law which has been passed is such as is required by the exigencies of the case, and, therefore, as I said, the balance will be struck between individual liberty and the social control. In the result, Governments will have to go to the court of law and justify why a particular measure infringing the personal liberty of the citizen has been imposed. As a matter of fact, the fear that in America the `due process’ clause has upset legislative measures, is not correct. I have not got the figures here, but I remember to have read it somewhere in over 90 per cent of the cases on the `due process’ clause which have gone to the American courts, action of the legislatures has been upheld. In such matters involving personal liberty Governments had to go before the court and justify the need for passing the legislation under which the person complaining was convicted. In a democracy it is necessary that there should be given an opportunity to the Governments to vindicate the measures that they take. Apart from anything else, it is a wholesome thing that a Government is given an opportunity to justify its action in a court of law.
