Polity

Article 14

Also: equality before law, equal protection of the laws

Definition

The Fundamental Right that guarantees to every person equality before the law and equal protection of the laws within India; it allows reasonable classification but forbids arbitrary state action.

Summary card: Article 14. Applies to all persons, not only citizens. Combines British and American ideas. Test: reasonable classification. Arbitrariness violates Article 14 (Royappa, 1974) — Summary card © UPSCPrep.in

Background and evolution

Article 14 opens the chapter on the Right to Equality, Articles 14 to 18. Its first phrase, "equality before the law", comes from the British idea that no one is above the law, part of Dicey's rule of law. Its second phrase, "equal protection of the laws", comes from the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted after the Civil War to protect freed slaves. Together, they mean that the state must not treat people unequally without a good reason.

Early Supreme Court cases, such as State of West Bengal v. Anwar Ali Sarkar (1952) and Budhan Choudhry (1955), developed the test of reasonable classification. In the 1970s, the Court added a second test: in E. P. Royappa (1974), Justice Bhagwati said that equality and arbitrariness are "sworn enemies", so any arbitrary act of the state violates Article 14. Later cases extended this idea to laws themselves.

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Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 · Original UPSCPrep.in content.