New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday 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 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.
‘Right to equality guarantees factual not formal equality’
