The goddess of justice, or the Roman Justitia, was not always blind. From that point of view, the new statue of Justice, unveiled by the Chief Justice of India in the Supreme Court, revives an ancient past in having open eyes. Yet it is not the past but the present and future that the new statue represents. It rejects the colonial-era symbolism of a blindfolded Justice in Western clothes with weighing scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The new statue is dressed in a saree and the sword has been replaced by a book representing the Constitution. The blindfolded statue was meant to be impartial, administering justice to the poor and the rich alike, uninfluenced by power, wealth and status. The sword represented punishment for the guilty. The impact was intimidating, with law being seen as impersonal and immovable and with punishment as Justice’s main function. The new statue gives the goddess a more familiar, humane cast with the changed symbolism suggesting an approach to law grounded in the Constitution.

The original figure of Justitia, whose worship was introduced by the emperor Augustus, and who evolved out of Themis of Greek mythology, a Titan who presided over justice, wisdom and good counsel, had no blindfold. A 15th-century woodcut illustrating the satirical poem, “The Ship of Fools”, has the goddess blindfolded for the first time. But this was a criticism, with the fool tying up her eyes. By the 17th century the satirical connotation had disappeared and the blindfold came to mean impartiality of the law. But the concept of equality itself has evolved and is nuanced according to time and place. India is diverse in its customs, societies and economic standards; equality in India is impartiality accompanied by a sense of differentiation and an awareness of ground realities. That is why the goddess of justice must have open eyes. In a country where the underprivileged are often disadvantaged by their lack of understanding of the law or are unable to find proper representation for themselves, justice needs to be sensitive and compassionate. This is a modernisation of the concept of justice.

The saree on the new statue represents the Indianisation of a Western concept. The Constitution is the basis of law, not concepts of the colonial era. The vision of the Constitution is of a just, fair and compassionate society, not a threatening system that is born of the desire to repress and control. But evidence remains as important as before, because the statue carries the scales. But in the modern ideal of justice, the approach to evidence is different from that of the past. Social and economic contexts are pertinent as is the discretion of judges, who are repeatedly exhorted to apply their minds. Fairness is not a mechanical application of the law but a just understanding of each case. Will contemporary society and political leaders live up to this forward-looking representation of justice?