SC: Right to equality guarantees "factual and not formal equality"

The Supreme Court on Thursday, 1 August, said the fundamental right to equality guarantees "factual and not formal equality", and if different persons are not similarly situated, a classification is permissible.

The observations were made by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud while penning his 140-page 6:1 majority judgement by which the apex court held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within the Scheduled Castes (SCs) for granting quota inside the quota as they form a socially heterogeneous class.

The CJI said the Constitution permits valid classification if two conditions are fulfilled, the first being that there must be an intelligible differentia which distinguishes persons grouped together from others left out of the group.

The phrase "intelligible differentia" means difference capable of being understood, he said.

"In making the classification, the state is free to recognise degrees of harm. Though the classification need not be mathematical in precision, there must be some difference between the persons grouped and the persons left out, and the difference must be real and pertinent," he said.

"Second, the differentia must have a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved by the law, that is, the basis of classification must have a nexus with the object of the classification," he said.

The verdict examined whether the principle of sub-classification violates Article 14 (right to equality).

"It is established that Article 14 guarantees factual and not formal equality. Thus, if persons are not similarly situated in reference to the purpose of the law, classification is permissible. The same logic of classification equally applies to sub-classification....," he said.

The test that the court must follow to determine the validity of the sub-classification of a class is whether it is "homogeneous" or "similarly situated" for the purpose of the specific law, he said.

"If the answer to this is in the affirmative, the class cannot be sub-classified," he said.

"All persons are unequal in one or the other aspect. In a given situation, even a single individual may be treated as a class by themselves. In that case, it is particularly important that laws do not micro-classify," the CJI said.