Tag: Right to Equality

Stigma, Status and the State: Why Sub-Classification Fails The Test of Substantive Equality

Illustration of four faces breaking free out of a rigid triangle sectioned into four rectangular parts.

Last month, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to submit an affidavit along with Action Taken Report detailing steps taken to implement its August 1, 2024 judgment permitting sub-classification with SCs for reservation purposes and extending creamy layer principle to SCs. This marks a tremendous shift in India’s reservation jurisprudence from two-decade old E.V. Chinnaiah v. State of Andhra Pradesh. While Chinnaiah had held that SCs cannot be sub-divided and constitute a legal monolith, in Davinder Singh, the court empowered the states to do so. The court’s rationale says that sub-classification constitutes “tinkering with benefits” rather than “tinkering with the list”. The author proposes that the real solution of the problem is rooted in “special care” obligations under DPSPs arguing for targeted developmental actions instead of sub-classification of a unified political identity.

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In conversation with Swapnil Tripathi

In this interview conducted by CLS, we talk to Swapnil Tripathi.Swapnil is the Lead at Charkha (Centre for Constitutional Law) at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are judicial review and constitutional interpretation, with a particular focus on Public Interest Litigation. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, nominated in recognition of his work in the United Kingdom.

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The Politics of Belonging: Sovereignty, Exclusion and the Illusion of Accountability

Pieces of a board game (such as Scrabble) making up the letters to the word SOVEREIGNTY.

This essay examines how states use citizenship as a tool of mass exclusion, as seen in Myanmar and Assam, for political and material gain. The humanitarian consequences of these scenarios are governed by the international order, which neutralizes the humanitarian crisis, but does not supervise the sovereign entity. The essay proposes a thought experiment "Sovereign Human Rights Risk Rating"(SHRR) to analyze the state of accountability. It poses the question as to whether a purely technical, monetary system could achieve such accountability. The essay posits that SHRR would fail. The act of exclusion in this instance is not merely a political choice; rather it is a fundamental act of political sovereignty. The absence of accountability is what this global arrangement is built upon.

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Doctrine of Manifest Arbitrariness: Moving Towards A Wider ‘Reasonableness’ Review [Part II]

Image of Supreme Court against blue sky.

This blog analyses the characterizstion of arbitrariness as an enemy to equality, contending that while the Classification Doctrine and the older Non-Arbitrariness Doctrine both operate primarily as formal, process-based rationality requirements, focused on the means-end connection, the Manifest Arbitrariness Doctrine introduces a more normative, effects-based evaluation of both ends and means.

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Doctrine of Manifest Arbitrariness: Moving Towards A Wider ‘Reasonableness’ Review [Part I]

Image of Supreme Court against blue sky.

This blog analyses the characterizstion of arbitrariness as an enemy to equality, contending that while the Classification Doctrine and the older Non-Arbitrariness Doctrine both operate primarily as formal, process-based rationality requirements, focused on the means-end connection, the Manifest Arbitrariness Doctrine introduces a more normative, effects-based evaluation of both ends and means.

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Lost in Translation: The Constitutional Case Against Hindi Imposition

A protest against imposition of Hindi in Karnataka.

In recent years, the Union Government’s push for Hindi in governance and education, particularly through the National Education Policy, has triggered constitutional concerns. Though framed as promoting multilingualism, the policy's implementation effectively coerces non-Hindi speakers, especially in Tamil Nadu, into linguistic assimilation. This article argues that such imposition violates fundamental rights and fails the proportionality test outlined in Puttaswamy, undermining India’s federal structure and commitment to linguistic diversity.

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70 Years of Ram Jawaya Kapur: Analysing the Diminishing Influence of Indian Legislature in Contrast with ‘Executive Aggrandizement’ in Constitutional Governance

This article critically examines India's diluted separation of powers, stemming from the *Ram Jawaya Kapur* (1955) ruling that favored executive efficiency over strict separation. It argues that this model, particularly with majority and coalition governments, leads to legislative undermining through mechanisms like bypassing parliamentary scrutiny (guillotine, reduced committee referrals). The article concludes by advocating for strengthening legislative oversight mechanisms to counter this "silent shift" towards executive aggrandizement.

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