Article 14 says that State shall not
deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws
within the territory of India. Equality before law as provided in the Article
14 of our constitution provides that no one is above the law of the land. Rule
of the Law is an inference derived from Article 14 of the constitution. The
article 14 aims to establish the “Equality of Status and Opportunity” as
embodied in the Preamble of the Constitution. However, Article 14 does not mean
that all laws must be general in character or that the same laws should apply
to all persons or that every law must have universal application. This is
because all persons are not, by nature, attainment or circumstances in the same
positions. Thus, the State can treat different persons in differently if
circumstances justify such treatment. Further, the identical treatment in
unequal circumstances would amount to inequality. Thus, there is a necessity of
the “reasonable classification” for the society to progress. The Supreme Court
has maintained that Article 14 permits reasonable classification of persons,
objects, transactions by the State for the purpose of achieving specific ends
that help in the development of the society.
However, Article 14 forbids “class legislation”. Class legislation makes
an improper discrimination by conferring particular privileges upon a class of
persons. However, some argue that the extensive use of device of “reasonable
classification” by State and its approval by the Supreme Court has rendered the
guarantee of ‘fair and equitable” treatment under Article 14 illusory. Here
comes the role of “Test of reasonable classification”. The Test of Reasonable
Classification says that the classification must be based upon intelligible
differentia that distinguishes persons or things that are grouped from others
that are left out of the group. This differentia must have a rational relation
to the object of classification. There should be a relation between the
differentiations to the object of the classification. If there are no such
relations, the reasonable classification would fail.
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