Right to Equality under Article 14 of the Constitution

Introduction

In general sense, everybody here is capable of understanding Article 14 of the Indian Constitution i.e. “Right to Equality”. Even after 77 years of independence, our country is not able to gain actual independence. Evils like discrimination are still prevailing in our country. Even the one who created our Constitution suffered from this anathema. Even now there are some places where people are not treated equally and they are discriminated on different basis like religion, race, sex, caste, place of origin, etc.

Article 14 basically states that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”.

To treat all citizens equally is the basic concept of liberalism and Article 14 ensures the same to our citizens. The liberty of any person is directly connected to the equality he/she is getting in society.

Equality before Law

Equality before Law basically means that all persons should be treated equally no matter whether they are poor or rich, male or female, upper caste or lower caste. This state cannot provide any special privileges to anyone in the country. It is also known as legal equality.

Equality before the law and absolute equality

On one hand, Equality before Law prohibits providing any special privilege to any community or people. It does not talk about equal treatment in equal circumstances. According to it, there must be a very ideal condition and the state does not need to interfere in society by providing additional privileges in society.

On the other hand Right to Equality is not absolute and has several exceptions to it. Accordingly, equals should be treated equally. Equality before Law has several exceptions, for example, the Immunity provided to the President and Governor. Reservation is also a typical example that defines that the Right to Equality is not absolute and can be restricted (or rather used properly) according to the need of the society.

In the very famous case of State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar, the question of whether the Right to Equality is absolute or not was raised. Here Supreme Court held that the Right to equality is not absolute. In this case, the State of Bengal was found to use its power arbitrarily to refer any case to the Special Court which was made by them. It was thus held that the Act of State of Bengal violates the Right to Equality.

Equality before the law and Rule of Law

We have already discussed the Equality before Law in detail however there is also a direct connection between Equality before Law and Rule of Law. In Fact, the Rule of Law which is given by Prof. Dicey says that no one here is beyond or above the law and is equal in front of the law. Rule of Law guarantees every person the Equality before Law.

The Rule of Law states that in a country all should be treated equally and as there is no state religion so it (state) should not discriminate against any religion here the concept of uniformity should be applied. Basically, it is derived from Magna Carta (is a charter of rights signed in the UK) which prohibits the arbitrary power of the state.

Equal protection of the Laws

This is one of the positive concepts of Equality. Equal protection of the law is incurred from Section 1 of the 14th Amendment Act of the US constitution. According to this principle, everybody who resides in India should be treated equally and will get equal protection of the law. It guarantees all people inside the territory of India should be treated equally and the state cannot deny it (for equal protection of the law).

It puts the positive obligation on the state to prevent the violation of rights. This can be done by bringing socio-economic changes.

The same concept has been discussed in Stephens College v. The university of Delhi, In this case, the admission process of college was checked and the main issue raised was the validity of preference given to Christian students in the admission process. Here the Supreme Court held that minority institution which is receiving aid from state funds is entitled to grant preference or to reserve seats for the students of its community.

The Supreme Court held that differential treatment of candidates in the admission programme does not violate Article 14 of Indian Constitution and it is needed for the minority section.

Access to Justice

By equality before the law, it means everyone has access to justice. No one can be barred from access to justice. Here all should be treated equally in front of the judicial system. The word “Access to Justice” includes some basic rights of a person. By term access to justice, we mean that every person should have the right to appear in court.

Also, there are many people who are deprived of access to justice due to economical knowledge or due to lack of awareness. Here it means that the government needs to play a vital role in providing justice to them. For granting Access to Justice we need to reform our judicial system. We need to work on the legal aid system.

Protection against arbitrariness

There is a thin line of difference between being arbitrary and non-arbitrary actions. The right to equality prevents the arbitrary action of the state. This article speaks about the Equal Protection of Law and it is against the doctrine of arbitrariness. For protection against arbitrariness, there are several restrictions put on every organ of the state. It is an important part to prevent the organ of the state from making any arbitrary decision.

Conclusion

At last, I would like to conclude that as our country is democratic we have been provided certain fundamental rights to every citizen and ensure that these rights should not be infringed by anyone i.e. even by the state. Right to Equality which is provided by our constitution is not actually being properly enforced even after so much legal obligation related to it has been put forward by our judicial system. Our judiciary along with the other two organs of state are working very hard to maintain equality among all the citizens of our country then also until the citizens are not aware of their rights it becomes very difficult to eradicate inequality. The role of the citizens became very vital for the protection of their own rights.