T N GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD Vs. ASHOK KHOT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The "King is under no man, but under God and the law"- was the reply of the Chief Justice of England, Sir Edward Coke when James-I once declared "Then I am to be under the law. It is treason to affirm it"-so wrote Henry Bracton who was a Judge of the Kings Bench.

(2.) The words of Bracton in his treatise in Latin "quod Rex non debat esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et Lege" (That the King should not be under man, but under God and the law) were quoted time and time again when the Stuart Kings claimed to rule by divine right. We would like to quote and requote those words of Sir Edward Coke even at the threshold.

(3.) In our democratic polity under the Constitution based on the concept of Rule of law which we have adopted and given to ourselves and which serves as an aorta in the anatomy of our democratic system. THE LAW IS SUPREME.