RIGHT TO EQUALITY: FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

Introduction-

Democracy can only flourish in that place where there is equality and no discrimination. India was a place where inequality based on religion, caste, sex or position in the society was followed in the form of untouchability, race-discrimination, casteism etc. A very long battle had been fought our famous independence leaders to bring equality among the people of India and keeping this only in mind the framers of our Indian Constitution added Right to Equality as fundamental rights in the Constitution so that nobody suffers from any kind injustice.

Right to Equality means an absence of legal discrimination on the bases of caste, religion, sex, race and place of birth and ensures equality among its citizen. It is one of the basic features of the Indian Constitution.

Right to equality is divided into five articles in the constitution:

1. Equality before law (Article-14)
2. Prohibition of discrimination on the ground of caste, religion, sex, race and place of birth (Article-15)
3. Equality of opportunity in the matters of public employment (Article-16)
4. Abolition of untouchability (Article-17)
5. Abolition of titles (Articles-18)

Under Right to equality, its applications are discussed in Article-14 whereas specific applications are discussed in remaining articles. So here we will discuss Article-14 of the Indian Constitution.

Article-14

Article-14 says that- The state shall not any person ‘equality before law’ and ‘equal protection of laws’ within the territory of India. So article-14 tries to establish equality among people regardless of whether that person is a citizen or not. Moreover, it aims at establishing a ‘rule of law’ in India.

Equality before law

This concept was taken from English common law, which says the absence of special privileges for any person which means there will be no discrimination on the bases of colour, race, and caste for any person. Everyone is equal in the eyes of law and is treated alike.

This concept was inspired by A.V.Dicey famous concept of ‘Rule of law’, which says that every individual, government and institution should obey the law and everyone should be treated equally regardless to their position and should come under the jurisdiction of ordinary courts not, any special courts.

The concept of rule of law is standing on three pillars which are as follows:

1. Supremacy of law- There should be no arbitrariness and no person should be punished except when he does a breach of law. Moreover, his crime should also be proven to a country’s legal authority and punished accordingly.
2. Equality before law- This means everyone regardless of their rank, positions should be administrated by normal courts not, by any special courts. It seeks to ensure that law is administrated and enforced in a just and fair manner.
3. The predominance of free legal spirit- Dicey believed that there should be enforcing authority to enforce the above two principles. And that authority should always be ‘courts’.

Equal protection of the law

The concept of equal protection of the law is based on the last clause of the first section of the 14^th amendment of the US Constitution. This means that there will be equal protection should be secured to every person within the territorial jurisdiction. The protection is without any favours and discrimination. This also implies that equal privileges are provided to people both in the privileges and liabilities by law.

Legislative Classification

With the changes in the society laws keep on changing and sometimes a classification is there for the welfare of the society. The classification of law should be lawful. But is sometimes if the law doesn’t include any particular section of the society then it must have a reasonable explanation. To check whether the classification made is lawful there is a includes two steps:

1. Intelligible Differentia- It means that difference is apparent and is capable of being understood. It says that when a classification is made between two persons it should be based on intelligent reason.
2. Rational Nexus- It means that differentia should have a rational relation to the object of the statute in question.

This blog is written by Pragya Sharma, Amity University.

Some of her BLOGs,

• RIGHTS OF PRISONERS
• Should Marital Rape be criminalized in India?
• Rape under Indian penal Code
• UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY: What is Section 144?
• NEPOTISM in the WORKPLACES

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