The ICFAI University, Dehradun

Legal Internship Programme, 2022

Name – Aditya Singh

En.Id – 19FLICDDN01076

Batch Name & Year – BBA.LLB (H.) 2019 - 24

Title – Article 14

Submitted By – Aditya Singh

Submitted To – Mr. Rupaksh Sharma

 ARTICLE 14

INTRODUCTION
In general sense, everybody here is capable of understanding Article 14 of the Indian
Constitution i.e. “Right to Equality”. Even after 73 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.
By knowing the scenario of India our Constitution-makers added Article 14 in Indian
Constitution as the fundamental right to citizens as well as those who are not a citizen of our
territory.
The main purpose of writing this article is to bring clarity about Article 14. When we see a
husband treating his wife badly, a girl who is not able to complete her education due to family
pressure, a lower caste man being shown inferior to upper caste people. These are examples of
discrimination. Here we can understand how important the role of the state is to maintain the
equality of citizens.
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

Our country as we all know is a democratic country and in fact the largest democratic country in
the world. Here all are independent to think about anything, do anything (with reasonable
restriction though) and our state is there to put reasonable restriction. In the eyes of law, all
persons within the territory of our country should be treated equally.
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.

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.
Right to equality needed to be applied in a practical sense so that no one is deprived of their
rights. From Mahatma Gandhi to Bhim Rao Ambedkar everyone dream of the country where
there is no place of discrimination.