Q.

If you as a lawyer find yourself in a kind of deadlock where at one side there is literal
application of law and at the other side there is a call for mercy?
Answer: In the play, Merchant Of Venice we see that if the literal interpretation of law is to
be taken into consideration then Shylock would have got “his pound of flesh” and Antonio’s
life would have been taken away. This would have been very harsh as Bassanio was ready to
pay shylock 9000 ducats for the 3000 ducats that he had lend Antonio. The literal
interpretation of law makes a law very harsh and leaves no place for humanly feelings of
mercy , compassion and love. This would proof to be very detrimental as we would judge
everyone by strict laws and human emotions of mercy would be totally overlooked. For
trivial offences also we would go for harsh punishments and that would be wrong.
Then Portia in her speech talks about mercy. She says that mercy is twice blessed and should
be show by everyone, so that they can also receive the same. Portia says that mercy is the
quality of the strongest people and it is above all material and physical powers that exist.
ALREADY MENTIONED IN MERCY SPEECH OF PORTIA QUESTION 3.

Portia in her mercy speech does not mention about law at all and says that Shylock should
leave Antonio as he should be merciful and everyone should be judged by god. Hence we see
that when we only go for mercy then the law takes a back seat and that would mean that we
would leave each and every offender as we need to be merciful. This would mean
unlawfulness in the society and would lead to dire consequences.
Hence, there should be a balance between the literal application of law and mercy. The law
should be interpreted in such a way that the quality of mercy is taken into account. Laws
should be made in such a way that they are not harsh and have scope for humanly feelings of
mercy is there. If there is strict and rigid interpretation of law by its literal sense, that would
be detrimental to the interest of the whole society . Societies concern keep changing with
times and law has to be interpreted taking into account those concerns or else law will loose
its significance. The feeling of mercy is important while interpreting law because every
offender has a background to his offence. Now, specially in the indian context every criminal
has a history and the criminals mostly belong to the marginalised section of the society. So
law has to be considerate enough to take into account those circumstances that have pushed
them towards crime. The motive of punishment and penal provisions is to reform the accused
and if that is by a strict interpretation of law then the accused will be resentful and will think
injustice has been done to him. If law takes into account the concept of mercy and other
humane considerations the accused will feel that the legal system is balanced and not elitist.
Hence the law should be interpreted in such a way that the concept of mercy is always
incorporated.