The Price of Guilt: When Justice Is Sold in Pieces

At the heart of every civilized society lies the idea that wrongdoing meets its rightful reckoning. A theft, a bribe, a rape, a murder—each demands a response not shaped by wealth, status, or influence, but by the law and the conscience of society.

But when punishment becomes a marketplace, justice begins to rot.

I. The Dream of Justice: “One Crime – One Punishment”

This is the foundation of moral law. It proclaims that every human is equal before the law, and that a crime is a betrayal of collective trust, not just an individual misstep.

• A thief should face the same penalty whether he steals from a roadside stall or from a treasury.
• A rapist should rot, not walk free with legal gymnastics and political muscle.
• A corrupt official should lose office and dignity, not just pay a fine from his overflowing bribe box.

“One Crime – One Punishment” is the sword and the scale held by Lady Justice. It’s blind not because it cannot see, but because it refuses to discriminate.

II. The Reality of Injustice: “One Crime – Multiple Prices”

And yet, we live in a nation where punishment is not fixed—it is negotiated. Where jail is for the powerless, and fines are for the powerful. Where crimes are not judged, they are priced.

• A politician caught looting faces a CBI inquiry, then a clean chit, then a ticket in the next election.
• A bureaucrat caught in a scandal gets transferred—not tried.
• A rich man who kills on a highway writes a cheque, while a poor man who steals bread rots for years.

This is the economy of punishment, where your wallet, connections, and caste determine your sentence—not your guilt.

And this is no accident.

III. Designed Discretion: The Corruption Hidden in Law

Look closer, Most of the countries across the world colonised by British Empire. These Whitish Mastered in the English, so called legal phrases that conveniently allow the judges a range of bending the knee and some time they kneel down well to the wealthy people in the colony. The Law is not common for poor and rich. The idea is those who do favour to the master, they will get less punishment, and those who rigid and unfavour, they will get rigourous imprisonment. Here it goes.

“Punishable with a fine which may extend to ?5,000 or imprisonment up to 6 months…”

This “may… or…” is a moral loophole.

It gives a judge the flexibility to punish—but in a corrupt ecosystem, it gives the system the flexibility to let go.

This is where banana baskets, political calls, and silent bribes whisper into verdicts.

It’s not just that crimes go unpunished. It’s that they are converted into transactions.

One pays in cash. One pays in kind. One pays in favors. One pays in silence.

Thus, one crime becomes many prices—and justice becomes many lies.

IV. The Consequence: A Society Unraveling

When justice is unequal, society learns the wrong lesson.

The honest begin to wonder if truth is foolish. The poor begin to believe the law is a weapon against them. The youth begin to see crime not as wrong—but as affordable.

And that is how a nation decays from within.

Not by war. Not by poverty. But by a slow and silent betrayal of its own conscience.

V. A Call for Moral Architecture

India does not need more laws. It needs more clarity, more courage, more consistency.

• No more flexible sentences for fixed crimes.
• No more options where punishment is mandatory.
• No more judicial “discretion” where systemic corruption reigns.
• No more courtroom drama where the script is already bought and sold.

Let us inscribe into the soul of the Republic:

“One Crime – One Punishment.” Because the moment we allow many prices, we lose the very price of being human.