2018-19

PROJECT ON
EQUALITY & SOCIAL JUSTICE

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mrs. Neemasri Yadav Shweta Beck
L.L.B(1ST SEM)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my college academic department, our principle Dr. Archana
Shukla & specially to Mrs. Neemasri Yadav our class co-coordinator for giving me
support and guidance for preparing this project on Equality & Social Justice and I
would like to thank my college staff and library to provide me the valuable study
material to complete the total exercises of Equality and social justice.

Thank you

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mrs. Neemasri yadav Shweta BECK

LLB (1ST SEM)

 EQUALITY
&
SOCIAL JUSTICE(ARTICLE 14-15)
 Right to equality in general (Article 14)
 Right to equality in particular(Article 15 to 18)

Right to Equality in general (article 14)

“According to article 14 the state shall not deny to any person equality before the
law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory”. Article 14 -18 of the
constitution guarantees this right to every citizen of India. Thus, the right to
equality in the constitution of India is not merely a negative right not to be
discriminated against but also a positive right to be treated as an equal. Under the
later aspect of the right, which is the essence and core of the right to equality, the
state is under the obligation to take necessary steps so that every individual is
given equal respect and concern which he is entitled to as a human being”. It lays
down the general principles of equality before the law and prohibits unreasonable
discrimination between the persons.

Article 14 guarantees to every person the right to equality before the law or the
equal protection of laws. The first expression ‘equality before the law’. It is a
declaration of equality of all persons within the territory of india,implying thereby
the absence of any special privilege in favour of any individual. Every person,
whatever be his rank or position, is subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary
courts.It means no man is above law and that every person, high or low, is subject
to the ordinary law of the land.
The second expression “equal protection of laws”, it direct that equal protection
shall be secured to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction of the union in the
enjoyment of their rights and privileges without favoritisms or discrimination. it is
a more positive concept implying equality of treatment in the equal
circumstances. In other words, all persons who are in the same circumstances will
be governed by the same set of rules. It is a guarantee of equal treatment. An
equal law should be applied with an equal hand to all persons who are the equals.
The rule is that the like should be treated alike and not that unlike should be
treated alike. the same or uniform treatment of unequal is as bad as unequal
treatment of equals. It has been said that the equal protection of the law is a
pledge of protection or guarantee of equal laws.

Case: - In shri srinivash theater v. govt. of Tamil nadu, the supreme court
explained that the two expressions equality before the law and equal protection
of law don not mean the same thing even if there may be much in common
between them. Equality before the law is a dynamic concept having many facets.
The one facet is that there shalkl be no privileged person or class and that none
shall be above law. Another facet is the obligation upon the state to bring about,
through the machinery of law, an equal society or, equality before the law can be
predicted meaningfully only in equal society.

Article 14 uses the term ‘any person’,natural or artificial,wheather he is a citizen

or alien, is entitled to the protection under the provision.
ARTICAL 14: Equality before law
According to Dr. Jennings, “Equality before the law means that among equals the
law should be equal and should be equally administered, that the like should be
treated alike. The right to sue and be sued, to prosecute and to be prosecuted for
the same kind of action should be same for all citizens of full age and
understanding without distinctions of race, religion, wealth, social status or
political influence.

Case:-

In state of west Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar, the court rightly observed that the
second expression is the corollary of the first and it is difficult to imagine a
situation in which the violation of equal protection of laws will be the equality
before the law. Thus, in substance, the two expressions mean one and the same
thing. before the law.

Exception:
Under article 359, when the proclamation of emergency is in operation, the
enforcement of article 14 may be suspended during that period. Article 361
provides that president and governor shall not be answerable to any court for the
exercise and performance of the powers and duties of the office. They also enjoy
immunity from criminal and civil proceedings until certain conditions are fulfilled.

Members of parliament and of state legislature are not liable in respect of

anything done or said within the house(article 105 and 194).Foreign diplomats are
immune from the jurisdiction of courts. Article 31 c form an exception by
excluding some laws from the purview of article 14.
Equal protection of laws:-
It is a guarantee of equal treatment. An equal law should be applied with an equal
hand to all persons who are the equals. The rule is that the like should be treated
alike and not that unlike should be treated alike. The same or uniform treatment
of unequal’s is as bad as unequal treatment of equals. It has been said that the
equal protection of the law is a pledge of protection or guarantee of equal laws.

The rule of laws imposes a duty upon the state to take special measure to prevent
and punish brutality by police methodology. The rule of law embodied in Article
14 is the ‘basic features’ of the Indian Constitution and hence it cannot be
destroyed even by an amendment of the constitution under 368 of the
constitution.

Case- In Stephen’s college v. university of delhiunder The court held that the
expression “Equal protection of the laws is now being read as positive obligation
on the state to ensure equal protection of laws by bringing in necessary social and
economic changes so that everyone may enjoy equal protection of the laws and
nobody is denied such protection. If the state leaves the existing inequalities
untouched laws of by its laws, it fails in its duty of providing equal protection of its
laws to all persons. State will provide equal protection to all the people of India
who are citizen of India and as well as non citizen non India.

Grounds of reasonable classification:

Some of the important grounds of reasonable classification are as follows:

1. Age- Age may be the ground of classification, i.e., classification on

the basis of age may be a reasonable classification. For example,
section 11 of the Indian contract act provides that a major can enter
into a contract but a minor cannot enter into a contract. This
discrimination between major and minor on the basis of age is
 reasonable because a minor may not be able to understand the
effect of the contract on his interest.
2. Sex- sex may be a basis of reasonable classification. Article 15(1)
provides 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. However, article 15)3) makes it clear that the provision of
article 15 shall not prevent the state from making any special
provisions for women and children. Sex, thus may be a basis of
reasonable classification. For example, sec 497 of I.P.C. which
provides that adultery may be committed only by men and provides
punishment only for men and not for women has been held to be
valid.
3. Geographical or territorial basis-Geographical or territorial factor
may be a basis of reasonable classification. A law may be made
applicable to one state and not to the other state or states. A state
may be divided into several regions and law may be made applicable
to one region and not to the other regions. for example, in case
Marwar Land Revenue Act was challenged on the ground that it was
applied only to Marwar region of the state of Rajasthan and it was
not applied to other regions of the state of Rajasthan. The court held
it valid on the ground that due to special circumstances prevailing in
Marwar region this Act was enacted and made applicable to the
Marwar region only.
4. Nature of business or profession: Reasonable classification may be
made on the basis of nature of business, occupation or profession.
Law may be passed to nationalize certain business. Thus the law
passed to impose special restriction on the business of liquor was
held valid.
5. Nature of source of authority: Source of authority may be a basis of
reasonable classification. for example different scale of dearness
allowance for state government’s servants and union government’s
servant is not against Article 14 because classification of employees
 into state government’s servant and union government’s servant
based on nature of source of authority is a reasonable classification.
6. Nature of offences and offenders: Nature of offence of offenders
may be a basis of reasonable classification. For example
establishment of special court for the trial of certain offences and
offenders for the purpose of speedier trial and with the guidelines for
the exercise for the exercise of the discretion of the executive
government is not against 14, however establishment of special court
for the trial of certain offences and offenders will be against Article
14 if uncontrolled and unguided discretion is given to the executive
government.
7. Basis under Tax Laws-Tax laws are not immune from Article
14.however the state has wide discretion in the matter of
classification for the purpose of taxation. If the legislature is
competent to levy tax, it is given full freedom to determination which
article should be taxed in what manner and at what rate. The
classification thus can be made on the basis of capacity to pay or
source of income or income. In Western India Theater v. Cantonment
Board, a higher tax on the cinema houses with large seating
accommodation and situated in busy and rich locality than on small
cinema houses containing less seating accommodation and situated
in poor locality has been held valid and not violative of Article
14because the classification was made on the basis of the income of
the cinema houses.
8. State of Government: State of government constitutes a separate
class. Discrimination may be made between the state and private
individual. Thus creation of monopoly in favour of state or State
Corporation is not violative of Article 4. The Act which enabled the
state to recover its dues by the coercive method but did not allow
the same method to the other persons was held to be valid because
the “Government, even as a banker, can be legitimately put into a
separate class”.
 9. Single Individual or body as a class: Single individual or body may
constitute a separate class and in such condition the law which is
applicable to the individual or body and not applicable other will not
be violative of Article 14. Thus, a law made applicable to single
individual or body which, due to special circumstance, constitute a
separate class and not applicable to others will be valid and not
violative of Article 14.

Right to equality in particular(Article 15)

The concept and purpose this article is to prevent the government from making
discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or birth place. One of the
clauses clearly states that no citizen shall be subject to “any disability, liability,
restriction or condition” on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex and place birth.
Their access to public properties like shop, restaurants and entertainment hubs
should not be restricted on grounds of religion or caste. The article also
guarantees special provision for women, children and socially disadvantaged
classes.

Case- M.R Balaji v. State of Mysore AIR 1963 SC 649

On the 31st July , 1962, the state passed the impugned order which supersedes all
previous orders made by the state under Art. 15(4) for reservation of the seats in
favour of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as well as the Backward
Classes . under this order, the Backward Classes are divided into two categories
(1)Backward Classes and (2)More Backward Classes.

The effect of this order is that it has fixed

 50%reservation of seats for other backward classes;

 28% out of this is reserved for backward classes so-called and
 22% for more backward classes.

The reservation of 15% and 3% for the schedules castes and scheduled tribes
respectively continues to be the same.

The result of this order is that 68% of the seats available for admission to the
engineering and medical colleges and to other technical institutions specified in
the order passed on the 10th july,1961, is reserved and only 32% is available to the
merit pool.

Benefits of Article 15

The clause (3) of the article empowers the government to make special
provision/laws for women and children. It is considered one of the earlist
legislations that emphasized on gender equality and women empowerment.

In article 15(4) and (5), the constitution gives government the power to make
special provisions”for the advancement of any socially and educationally
backward classes of citizen”. This holds true for the schedule castes and the
schedule tribes as well. Such ‘protective discrimination’ is a step taken to
eliminate inequalities existing in society. Moreover, the reservation of OBC’s
under Article 15 was aimed at providing equal opportunities in education and
raising social and economic levels of those who are lagging behind.
Amendments to Article 15

This anti-discrimination law made its first exception by including a clause(4)

during the 1st amendment in 1951. With this amendment, the article made way
for reservation for SCs and STs and other backward classes to benefit them
academically, socially and economically.

Its important to note that clause (5) of Article 15 was originally not a part of the
constitution. It was introduced during the ninety- third Amendment Act in 2005.b
there was widespread protest over the central government’s decision to include
this clause. Even stronger opposition came from the non-OBC students, which led
to the emergency of several writ petitions challenging the Amendment.

Criticism of Article 15

The clause (4) and (5) of Article 15 have often being criticized as a “part of the
vote catching mechanism”. These provisions were challenged by the petitioners,
who were of the opinion that the reservation policy clearly intended in these
provisions was a “measure of reparation”. The clause was also challenged on the
ground that identification of OBC was made only on the basis of caste and hence
it’s unreasonable”.

Article 15 may be explained in the following headings:-

 Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or

place of birth(Article 15)
1. The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
2. No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth
or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition
with regard to
a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and palaces of public
entertainment; or
b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing Ghats, road and places of public resort
maintained wholly or partly out of state funds or dedicated to the use of
the general public.

3. Nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making any special provision
for women and children.

4. Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the state from
making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes and the
scheduled tribes.
 Conclusion
Right to Equality is a one of the most important part of our Indian constitution,
which gives strengthen to all those people who belongs to Indian nationality. It is
necessity of the upcoming generation to secure their right & change our
developing India in to developed India.

As Dr. Jennings rightly said: “equality before the law means that among equals
the law should be equally administered, that like should be treated alike. The
right to sue and be sued to prosecute and prosecuted for the same kind of action
should be same for all citizens of full age and understanding without distinctions
of race, religion, wealth, social status of political influence”.