The Fundamental Rights as we saw are well protected by the Constitution against ‘the State’ as well as ‘private bodies’. Any law in contravention to these rights is void to the extent of its inconsistency with the fundamental rights.
Let’s look at them one by one.
Article 14 : Equality before law.
It states that the state shall not deny to any person ‘equality before the law’ or ‘equal protection of the laws’ within the territory of India.
It is important to note that there are two concepts : a) equality before the law b) equal protection of the laws.
The first concept, ‘equality before the law’ has the British origin. It emphasises on (a) the absence of any special privileges, (b) equal subjection of all persons before the ordinary laws and law courts and (c) Supremacy of law above all (whether rich or poor, official or non official, privileged or underprivileged).
In other words, if a law is violated by two people belonging to different categories (whether rich or poor, official or non official, privileged or underprivileged) no special privileges shall be provided to any of them. They shall be equally subjected before the law and the law courts and none of them shall be above the law.
Though the above concept looks fine in the cases of violation of a law, its application in all the aspects of civic life makes it unjust. For example, if everyone is taxed equally (whether rich or poor) it shall be unjust to the people who are poor and we shall never be able to achieve economic equity in the society. Similarly, special privileges are required to uplift the status of those classes of the society that have remained backward.
Thus, we adopted the concept of ‘equal protection of the laws’ as well. This is an American concept which emphasises on the ‘equality of treatment in equal circumstances’, both in privileges conferred and liabilities imposed by the laws. This means, similar application of the same laws to the persons similarly situated. In other words, like should be treated alike without discrimination. The concept of ‘equals to be treated similarly’ and ‘unequals be treated differently’ is called ‘intelligible differentia’
It is due to the equal protection of the laws that different income groups are taxed differently. The very basis of reservations is the concept of equal protection of the laws.
Thus, equality before the law treats everyone at par without any discrimination while ‘equal protection of the laws’ connotes ‘equality of treatment in equal circumstances’.Both these concepts,‘equality before the law’ & ‘equal protection of the laws’ are important and quintessential.
The right conferred by article 14 is enforceable only against the state not against the private bodies as only the states have the authority to regulate the laws.
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PS : The above texts are ‘not the exact texts’ copied from the Constitution of India.They have been modified in simple language for the ease of understanding. Due consideration has been given to ensure that ‘the spirit and the meaning’, as contained in the Constitution, remains the same. Please refer to the Constitution of India for the original texts. Please feel free to point out any discrepancy that comes across you. We shall be happy to modify the same.
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