Article 14 is a fundamental right provision in the Constitution of India, which is the cornerstone of the Right to Equality. It was introduced into the Constitution in 1950 and was originally part of Draft Article 15 (which became Article 21) before the Drafting Committee separated it into a new article under the heading 'Right to Equality' in November 1949. The provision was created to address prevalent discrimination in Indian society based on caste, religion, and class, aiming to establish a society where fair treatment under the law would be guaranteed to all.
Article 14 states that "The 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 the law, a negative concept drawn from English Common Law, means no individual can claim special privileges and all persons are subject to the same laws. Equal protection of the laws, a positive concept inspired by the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, requires the State to take positive measures to ensure that all persons in similar circumstances are treated equally. The protection extends to all "persons," including citizens, foreigners, and legal entities.
The Supreme Court initially interpreted Article 14 through the Classification Test, which permits differential treatment only if the classification is based on an intelligible differentia and has a rational nexus with the law's objective, as established in Ram Krishna Dalmia v. Justice S.R. Tendolkar (1958). A major shift occurred with the introduction of the Arbitrariness Doctrine in E.P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu (1974), where the Court held that equality is "antithetic to arbitrariness" and any arbitrary state action violates Article 14. This doctrine was reinforced in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978), linking Article 14 with Article 19 and Article 21 to ensure that any procedure established by law must be "fair, just, and reasonable". More recently, the doctrine of manifest arbitrariness was used in Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017) to strike down the practice of instant triple talaq, ruling that a practice that is manifestly arbitrary cannot claim constitutional protection. Article 14 is connected to other fundamental rights, such as Article 15 (prohibition of discrimination) and Article 16 (equality of opportunity in public employment), with Article 16(1) being considered a facet of Article 14.