CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 36 of 120

Correct — A, Article 14. The stem is almost the text itself: 'The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.' Two distinct guarantees sit in that one line. Equality before the law is the English common-law idea, negative in form — no one is above the law, and there are no special privileges. Equal protection of the laws is drawn from the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and is positive — like should be treated alike, which permits reasonable classification but forbids class legislation. Note also the word 'person': Article 14 protects citizens and non-citizens alike, and companies too, unlike Article 15 or Article 16, which are confined to citizens.

• (b)Article 15 — Article 15 is the specific prohibition, not the general guarantee. It forbids discrimination against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and allows special provisions for women, children and backward classes.
• (c)Article 16 — Article 16 applies the equality principle to one field only — equality of opportunity in matters of public employment — and carries the reservation clauses for backward classes and for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• (d)Article 22 — Article 22 has nothing to do with equality. It gives protection against arrest and detention: the right to be told the grounds of arrest, to consult a lawyer, and to be produced before a magistrate within twenty-four hours, with a separate regime for preventive detention.

The Right to Equality occupies five consecutive Articles of Part III. Article 14 lays down the general guarantee; Article 15 forbids discrimination on the five listed grounds; Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment; Article 17 abolishes untouchability; Article 18 abolishes titles. Article 14 is the parent provision, and the courts have grown a great deal out of it — the doctrine of reasonable classification, and after E.P. Royappa and Maneka Gandhi the wider proposition that arbitrariness itself violates equality.

The way to keep the block straight is general first, then narrowing. Article 14 is the umbrella; 15 narrows it to five grounds of discrimination; 16 narrows it further to public employment. Anything phrased in the widest possible terms, as this stem is, belongs to 14. The doctrinal point worth carrying beyond the answer is that Article 14 does not require identical treatment: a law may classify, provided the classification rests on an intelligible differentia and that differentia has a rational relation to the object of the law. The later and more powerful reading is that a law conferring unguided, uncontrolled discretion on an executive authority offends Article 14, because arbitrary power is the antithesis of equality — which is how the Article now does much of its work in administrative law.

• Article 14: 'The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.'
• It uses the word 'person', so it protects non-citizens and juristic persons as well as citizens.
• Equality before the law comes from English common law; equal protection of the laws is borrowed from the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• The Right to Equality spans Articles 14 to 18 — general equality, non-discrimination, equality of opportunity, abolition of untouchability and abolition of titles.
• A classification survives Article 14 only if it rests on an intelligible differentia that bears a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved.

• Choosing Article 15 because the question mentions discrimination-sounding language; 15 lists specific grounds, 14 states the general guarantee.
• Treating Article 14 as requiring identical treatment for everyone, which would make all classification unconstitutional.
• Forgetting that Article 14 says 'person', so a foreigner or a company can invoke it while Articles 15, 16 and 19 are citizens-only.

Asked either as a bare article-to-right match like this one, or as an applied item — for instance whether a law conferring unguided discretion on an official offends Article 14.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following Fundamental Rights is available to non-citizens as well as citizens?

  • (a)Equality of opportunity in public employment under Article 16
  • (b)Equality before the law under Article 14
  • (c)Freedom to practise any profession under Article 19(1)(g)
  • (d)Protection against discrimination under Article 15

  Answer(b) Equality before the law under Article 14 — its text speaks of 'any person', while Articles 15, 16 and 19 are confined to citizens.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Right to Equality in the Constitution of India is contained in

  • (a)Articles 12 to 16
  • (b)Articles 14 to 18
  • (c)Articles 15 to 19
  • (d)Articles 19 to 22

  Answer(b) Articles 14 to 18 — general equality, non-discrimination, equality of opportunity, abolition of untouchability and abolition of titles.