Why one needs awareness of Law?

Guest Post by Dr. Vasundhara Patil, B.Sc.(hons) ,LL.M,CAIIB, Ph.D Law (gold medallist)

Since law is an important part amongst different aspects of society, common people need to know about the laws affecting the common citizens and not just lawyers.
Knowing about the law is important while dealing with people and bodies in different spheres of life.

Knowing about the law, could help you to be careful about not breaking it. It also means that you know which laws cause problems and whether they need to be changed. Law and legal activity is the foundation stone of all social change, this means that your contribution to your nation’s development can be made through a knowing Law. Law is intended for the common man to follow. Generally people accept the Law of the land and also follow the same.

When you fall sick, you don’t immediately rush to the doctor, you try home remedies. If you feel slight feverish, we buy anti-pyretic tablets of your choice. When you have sore throat, you even resort to natural remedies like drinking hot water or drink hot milk with turmeric powder. We don’t go doctor unless we feel that without his medicines, we will not get well.

Similarly we do not consult an advocate, to know if one wants to know how to obtain a driving license or how to transfer the ration card if one relocates. We need not rush to take admission in law college to study law. We ask our friends, relatives who guide us because they have obtained a driving license. This is called becoming aware of the law.

Our Indian Law is based on the maxim”Ignorance of law is no excuse”
It means if one has violated any provisions of law, he cannot take a plea that I am ignorant of the law hence I committed a mistake. I am sorry. He will have to obey the punishment or penalty prescribed under the said law.

That is why we try to become aware of simple provisions of law. We read articles on law, we read simple books, we search websites, and we ask our friends, co-workers, relatives and enhance our awareness of law.

Common Man is surrounded by law from life to death. With a child’s birth, one has to immediately register the event and obtain his birth certificate. Leaving school, obtain school leaving certificate, take up an employment, sign the employment contract, got married, get a marriage certificate. One may want to write a will and when one dies, it’s the responsibility of the legal heirs to obtain death certificate.

If the set procedures /rules are not followed right from the beginning Common Man starts facing difficulties. No birth certificate, no admission in school. If you stay in a rented house and have agreed to pay monthly rent. But after a few months you have some difficulty and you don’t pay rent, what will happen? Unless you are aware of the consequences that you are likely to face, you will be caught unawares.

Suppose you purchase a house property, but you don’t stay there, you don’t even visit the premises for a long time. Later you get to know that the notice for property tax was not paid within the stipulated time and hence along with the penalty, the dues have become very high. Now you will have to pay twice or thrice the amount due. Because you were not aware that once you purchase a house, you immediately become responsible for payment of property tax.

You are walking on the road, some one snatches your bag containing important document or may be your wallet. What are you supposed to do.? Do you have any rights? If you drive a vehicle, you don’t know what documents are required to show that you are the owner of the vehicle you are driving. You don’t have license. Or if you are over speeding, police is following you. What is going to happen to you if police catches you? Endless questions!!!

For all our questions we try to take help of family members first. Then we check up with friends, or try to read some newspaper/magazine, book, or browse the internet for websites which could provide the answers to every why and how affecting our lives lie in different laws.

In case of serious problems, which require special knowledge of law we approach the lawyers. He is last source because we have to pay fees for his consultation. Awareness of law also gives one the benefits attached to the rules/law. Being aware one can avoid pitfalls but also take the benefits of following the laws.

Just as common man has to follow laws, there are some rights which he gets if others don’t follow law. Public servants are responsible for serving the citizens of the country. They are accountable to the common man. They should discharge their duties fearlessly and without bias.

If the public servants harass the common man then he has rights given to him under some law. Remember Shri Anna Hazare’s campaign for drafting of Anti corruption Bill? He went on fast till his demands were met .The common man came on streets to join his campaign because such bill if passed by parliament and is enacted into law will benefit the common man.

A common man is surrounded by Laws, Rules, Regulations, which are to be followed by him, some which are to be followed by others for him. Being aware of the laws makes the common man to avoid the consequences, for not following laws, and helps him to take benefits of his rights, which will make the journey of his life comfortable.

Bloggers’ Post-Script: With the above needs of the common man in mind, Dr. Vasundhara Patil, has been posting basic information about laws and regulations concerning common citizen on her website here.

Some interesting posts on her website:

How to write a will

Format for a General Power of Attorney

Dr. Vasundhara Patil, B.Sc.(hons) ,LL.M,CAIIB, Ph.D Law (gold medallist) is a qualified legal expert and also writes some short stories which have been featured on her website here evergreen.law4all.co.in , which also features some of her recipes. If you have any blogpost on the subject of law, Dr. Vasundhara Patil would love to put up your piece as a guest post on her website.

If you wish to be featured in The ArTicKles Blog, please send your guest-post to my email address g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com .

A flawed concept - MLMs

It has been over a decade now that what is known as MLMs – Multi level Marketing – appeared on the Indian shores. I had been invited through known circles to a presentation by a person who had migrated to the US and had reverse-migrated back to bring this innovative concept to us Indians who had not learnt how to dream! He began his presentation with how the new marketing method differs from the old traditional way of selling consumer products –"There will be no distributors, wholesalers and retailers – they add no value but only act as “middlemen” in the supply chain!”, he proclaimed. “The product will also not be advertised - advertising costs also constitute a large part of the price of the product in the market”, he continued. So one would now get products closer to its true cost price and not at ridiculously inflated prices – all due to the middlemen who were just lousy parasites in the conventional marketplaces. It sounded great – our prayers have been heard!

The presenter then went on to ask us what our dreams were. Would we not want to go on some Foreign trips? Live in palatial houses? Get rich? Retire early? Of course, we did – just tell us how! We could now to it, we learnt from the sorcerer of the marketplace – all we had to do was to enroll as a member and get more members to join in!

Wouldn’t we have to work for the money? Of course, initially we would have to get in as many friends and relative to get onto the bandwagon and then they will be the ones working for you! You enjoy the riches – play golf, go on the vacations you’ve been dreaming of, buy your luxury sedan and live the high life! Sounded just great! Here was I slogging 10-12 hours for a pittance – what a fool I had been, I told myself - when the world had moved on, learnt how to make money and enjoy the good life. I remembered how I had always wanted to be rich – nay “stinking rich” – but all that I had managed to become was “stinking” – the "rich" part was yet to come! So here it was, I told myself, brought to me by the good Samaritan marketing genius of the 21st Century. I must be lucky – really lucky to have been selected for this presentation!

To get such a great opportunity to make the high riches would be a huge investment, no? I had a nagging doubt if the presenter would then drop the bomb and tell us we need to shell out a fortune to be part of this elite money-making club. “Just about Rs. 5000 for the membership”, he said to my great relief – oh that’s ok, not much – I felt greatly relieved! So my future was made – all for a paltry sum, I was elated. Even if i were to lose it, it was not much, was it?!

“But what are you giving in exchange for the membership?” my wife, who had been quietly sitting alongside me, all this while, piped in. “You will get a product hamper – the entire range of our wonderful consumer products, which are not available anywhere – available exclusively for our members!”, the super-salesman – nay super marketing innovator replied.

On our way back, we got talking – while I was gung-ho about the new concept, my wife had only doubts cropping up in her mind – “Why did they not show the products? Why did they not give a sample sachet? How do we know whether the products are good? How do we know if they are worth the money we pay for?” Although I don’t really like the skeptics who give us the peptics, these questions were indeed worth giving a thought! In fact, she had a point – and it set me thinking too: How was it that the products were not the subject of the presentation, when they should have been the main focus of the discussion? How would I convince my friends and relatives if the products itself are not worth the money? Will they really bless me for having shared with them an offer which benefitted them or not? Or will they curse me for selling products not worth the price they have paid for?

Soon enough, we learnt from a common friend that they had already become members of the MLM and had the hamper of products for their exclusive use. And hold your breath – they felt the products, although good, were not worth the money that was paid for it – in fact very expensive – if they had found the products on the shelf of a consumer store, they would never have bought them! So had they begun enrolling members as explained – how long would it be before they booked their first luxury sedan? “We are not going to do that – because we value our relationship with our friends and relatives” was the prompt reply!

So if we assume our friends and relative – all of about 50 members (hopefully), do join in, we would be collectively paying Rs. 2.5 Lakhs! And all these people would again bring more money to the scheme! Collectively, it is not a small amount of money really - if friends and relatives really mattered!

OK. More questions came to my mind:
“How did a concept that had done away with distributors, wholesalers, retailers, advertisements be costlier than similar products available in the market?”
“Have all the members of the MLM who have already joined them replaced these distributors and retailers and become the parasites and middlemen in the new and innovative marketing chain?”
“Isn’t the entire structure of the MLM more beneficial to the old members who had joined early and bears heavy on the later entrants?”
“What will happen when the chain stops growing like my friend who values relationships more than undue profits?”
More importantly: “Are we being lured into the scheme by the promise of an easy money without much hard work?” “Have we been sold a dream instead of a product?” and “If it is too good to be true, perhaps it is?!”

Needless to say, we decided to give the opportunity a miss!

Many people lost money to vanishing MLMs – many early entrants (read: promoters) made money and then vanished without a trace. The Ponzi schemes, which pay money based on the new money coming in and not from profits earned, lasts only until new folks bite the bait! And when they dry up, they leave a vast trail of people who have lost money rather than have gained from them. Today MLMs have found it difficult to enter the market as MLMs they masquerade as ‘genuine online surveys’, ‘content providers’ ‘work from home schemes’ etc. If they are genuine, why do they want enrollment fee for services to be provided by us? Why do they focus on expansion by bringing members, when the focus should be on how to provide the service for the customers who use the output?

More importantly:
How come MLMs which are basically Ponzi scheme are not illegal?
How come they are not heavily regulated by RBI or SEBI?
How come the promoters are never known to the public?
Could it be that these schemes have the blessing of politicians and perhaps we are opening another can of worms here for yet another scam of humongous proportions?
How come the RBI or SEBI has never come forward to explain this to the lay public inspite of several blogs, columns, issues raised in magazines and periodicals?
Many questions – few answers! It is wise to refrain from joining any scheme which is too good to be true - because that is what they are:

Too Good to be True!

Blogger's Post-script: "I always wanted to be stinking rich - 50% target achieved - i am already stinking - i have yet to become rich!"