Equality Before Law And Equal Protection Of Laws Under The Constitution Of India

Nishtha Kumar, Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA

ABSTRACT

The Indian Constitution provides for equality before law and equal protection of law under Article 14. Article 14 is the most basic and important of these as other articles are just extensions that narrow down the wide concept covered under article 14. The article represents the principle of equality in the Indian Constitution. Equality before law means that all persons shall be treated equally before the law and equal protection of law means that all equals will be treated equally and all unequal’s, unequally. The Supreme Court in various judgements has talked a lot about arbitrariness and non-arbitrariness in Article 14. The principle of arbitrariness comes into play when we talk about reasonable classification. However, it is settled now that the state cannot act in an arbitrary manner in any of its legislative and executive actions and article 14 serves as a guarantee against arbitrariness if the state does so.