REASONABLE CLASSIFICATION VERSUS EQUALITY UNDER THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Authors

Jahnavi SindhuFollow
Vikram Aditya NarayanFollow

Abstract

This article critiques the standard of review most prominently applied in cases involving claims of violations of Article 14 of the Constitution: the reasonable classification test. We argue that this test is woefully inadequate in appreciating and protecting the wide-ranging nature of the right to equality. Through an examination of the origins of the reasonable classification test, we demonstrate the weak justifications initially advanced by the Indian judiciary to import it from dated United States (US) case law. Further, we highlight the substantial weaknesses of the test and explain how it precludes the judiciary from safeguarding the content of substantive equality that the Indian Constitution recognises. Most importantly, the article demonstrates that several judges in the last seven decades have noted the shortcomings of the reasonable classification test and have sought to add teeth to the test—sometimes even moving beyond it—in order to protect the right to equality robustly. The article threads together an alternative doctrinal narrative of Indian jurisprudence on Article 14 through these decisions, arguing that this narrative ought to replace the predominant vision of equality as seen through the narrow lens of the deferential reasonable classification test. Finally, we identify the variety of factors that have led the Indian judiciary to ask more searching questions of the state, and we outline how these factors may be incorporated into the judicial inquiry to make Indian equality jurisprudence clearer and more consistent. The article focuses especially on the need for more rigorous standards of review in cases involving identity-based or autonomy-affecting classifications, and it has a bearing on several constitutional cases pending before the Indian judiciary today.

Recommended Citation

Sindhu, Jahnavi and Narayan, Vikram Aditya (2023) "REASONABLE CLASSIFICATION VERSUS EQUALITY UNDER THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION," National Law School Journal: Vol. 17: Iss. 2, Article 4.
DOI: 10.55496/SQGO9575
Available at: https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsj/vol17/iss2/4

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.55496/SQGO9575