The meaningfullness of the SOPs to the investigators in the aftermath of an incident

i was wondering what is the meaning of the SOP that is so fashionably talked about these days.
What is an SOP or the Standard Operation Procedures and what is its significance ?
The investigators in the aftermath of an incident/accident so pointedly ask you to hand them your SOP , and in turn you given them some computer printed papers with a bold written heading on in ,'Standard Operation Procedure'.
Thereafter it becomes as if the needful have been accomplished ,and the parties move on without making any critical point about what have they done with that copy of that ordinary printed stapled piece of papers , having the title 'SOP' .

Well, in first place we all need to contemplate over what is an SOP, so that we may proceed to do something meaningful with that document.

To understand about the SOP , I think that we first need to understand the Principles of Legalism which are the driving force behind the management techniques which create documents as the SOP to ascertain accountability . The legal principles accepted all over the world do not allow a single innocent man to punished, even if that may require of the fair judges to let off a thousand guilty persons. That simply means that determination of accountability is most critical if one wants to run his organization efficiently. Because , without the precise determination of the wrong doer, the judicial system will only be of very little help to you to reward or punish the persons according to how they have fulfilled their employment contracts, or the duties with you.
There comes the mechanism of exercising the control over the employees , something , by which you may guarantee that works are performed exactly as you want them to be. Logically  therefore, you will have to lay down the set of procedure or the STANDARD OPERATION PROCEDURES describing in precise details as to how an employee has to conduct a certain business.
Logically, then, you will also need to lay down the procedures on how to conduct the incidence where a departure from the SOP may be required. This , you will require as a necessity to prevent the employee from conducting the business as per his whim and later seeking the defense of inability to judge the incident Vi-a-Vis the SOP applicable to it. And ofcourse, in a fair process, how would you expect to let something happen to your business without your good knowledge of it. Therefore, you would lay down as a necessity that every single departure can happen only and only by your permission of it, or the permission of the person who you have delegated.

Since the SOP are meant to provide the accountability in the court of law, all the SOP actions will have a tight framework of paper trails around them. That means the rigorous paper work.

This , in turn , will mean that the SOP documents themselves need to start with the correct, legally sound paper trail around them !
Now what does that mean ??
It means that SOP themselves cannot be allowed to undergo amendment, retrieval, deletion, insertion, addition without a paper trail of who did it, when, under whose authority , and perhaps the why.
That means that no ordinary computer printed paper can be accepted for an SOP written in the face of it. The paper must mention the name and description of the issuing authority, the version, issuance date, receipt of having been read or the Reading Acknowledgement and so.

It will follow from the logic of it that once an *SOP* has been issued about any operation or the business, all actions pertaining to that business *must* necessarily happen by that *SOP* alone. That  means, no single incidence of departure can be tolerated with *SOP* being claimed of yet being in place. Because there cannot be any logical place for compliance and non-compliance both at the same time.
That also means that people thereafter cannot take defenses such as  *"as a practise..."*, or *"on grounds..."*, etc. None of such defenses are consistent with the compliance of the *SOP*. _'One has to be proven practicing only and only what he has himself laid down as a means of operation control_.

from the above theory we may proceed to contemplate as to what should the investigators do with the *SOP* which they so fashionably ask for.
first of all, they must keep tallying that all the answers given as confirming with the SOP that they have taken custody of. They must check that no departure have happened, and if there be any, the records of receiving permissions from the designated authorities exist.

the SOPs are very important to determine the admission of guilt in the court of law. But the SOPs can achieve that only if they themselves have been created with a sound legal admissibility around themselves. Shabbily written SOPs should have no place in the court of law. Such SOPs are but a disguised form of *arbitrary and discretionary* , the feudal era judicial procedures being practised in an organization.