equality before law
Article 14 combines two ideas. Equality before the law, from English law and Dicey, means no one is above the law and all are subject to the ordinary courts. Equal protection of the laws, from the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, means like persons in like circumstances must be treated alike. The right is available to all persons, including non-citizens.
Article 14 forbids class legislation but permits reasonable classification. In Anwar Ali Sarkar the Supreme Court stated the test: the classification must rest on an intelligible differentia, and the differentia must have a rational nexus with the object of the law. In E.P. Royappa it added that equality is opposed to arbitrariness; an arbitrary act is unequal and violates Article 14.
Example
The rule failed equality before law because the distinction between graduates of two colleges had no rational nexus with the object of recruitment.
In Indian law
- Article 14, Constitution of India
- State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar, 1952 INSC 1
- E.P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, 1973 INSC 213
See also
due process of law · doctrine of waiver · droit administratif
Read more in the study notes
- Administrative law: meaning, nature, scope, growth and sources (Administrative Law)
- Rule of law and droit administratif (Administrative Law)
- Delegated legislation: meaning, growth, merits and administrative directions (Administrative Law)
- Audi alteram partem: the right to a fair hearing (Administrative Law)
- Administrative discretion and its judicial review (Administrative Law)
- Government contracts and state liability: the administrative-law angle (Administrative Law)