Article 14 runs as follows :-
“The State shall not deny to any Person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”
It is the first of the five Articles grouped together under the heading “Right to Equality.” The underlying object of this Article is undoubtedly to secure to all persons, citizens or non-citizens, the equality of status and of opportunity referred to in the glorious preamble of our Constitution. It combines the English doctrine of the rule of law and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the American Federal Constitution which enjoins that no State shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. There can, therefore be no doubt or dispute that this Article is founded on a sound public policy recognised and valued in all civilised States. Coming then to the language of the Article it must be noted, first and foremost that this Article is, in form, an admonition addressed to the State and does not directly purport to confer any right on any person as some of the other Articles, e.g. Article 19, do. The obligation thus imposed on the State no doubt, ensures for the benefit of all persons, for, as a necessary result of the operation of this Article, they all enjoy equality before the law. That is, however, the indirect, though necessary and inevitable, result of the mandate The command of the Article is directed to the State and the reality of the obligation thus imposed on the State is the measure of the fundamental right which every person within the territory of India is to enjoy.
The next thing to notice is that the benefit of this Article is not limited to citizens, but it available to any person within the territory of India. In the third place it is to be observed that, by virtue of Article 12, ” the State” which is, by Article 14, forbidden to discriminate between persons includes the Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the legislature of each of the States and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India. Article 14, therefore, is an injunction to both the legislative as well as the executive organs of the State and the other subordinate authorities. As regards the legislative organ of the State, the fundamental right is further consolidated and protected by the provisions of Article 13. Clause (1) of that Article provides that all laws in force in the territories of India immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of Part III shall, to the extent of the inconsistency be void.
Likewise. Clause (2) of this Article prohibits the State from making any law which takes away or abridges the rights conferred by the same Part and follows it up by saying that any law made in contravention of this clause shall, to the extent of the contravention, be void. It will be observed that, so far as this Article is concerned, there is no relaxation of the restriction imposed by it such as there are in some of the other Articles, e.g. Article 19, clauses (2) to (6). Our right to equality before the law is thus completely and without any exception secured from all legislative discrimination. It is not necessary, for the purpose of this, appeal to consider whether an-executive order is a “law” within the meaning of Article 13, for even without the aid Article 13, our right to the equal protection of the law is protected against the vagaries, if any, of the executive Government also. In this connection the observations of Lord Atkin in Eleko v. Officer Administration Government of Nigeria, 1931 AC 662 are apposite. Said his Lordship at page 670 (of AC) that in accordance with British jurisprudence no member of the executive can interfere with the liberty or property of a British subject except when he can support the legality of his act before a Court of justice. That apart, the very language of Article 14 of the Constitution expressly directs that “the State”, which by Article 12 includes the executive organ, shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the law. Thus Article 14 protects us from both legislative and executive tyranny by way of discrimination.
Reference
Basheshar Nath v. Commissioner of Income-tax, Delhi and Rajasthan and another (1958)