Equality and Preferential Treatment: Constitutional Limits and Judicial Control,' Indian Yearbook of International Affairs 14:257-80 (1965)
Abstract
India's vast and unparalleled experiment with ' protective' or , compensatory' discrimination in favour of ' backward' sections of her population betokens a generosity and farsightedness that are rare among nations. The operation of such a preferential principle involves formidable burdens of policymaking and administration in a developing nation. It also places upon the judiciary tasks of great complexity and delicacy. The courts must guard against abuses of the preferential principle while at the same time insuring that the government has sufficient leeway to devise effective uses of the broad powers which the Constitution places at its disposal. In discharging this task, the Indian courts have gradually been evolving standards designed to insure that the power to make special provisions for backward classes is confined to the purpose of advancing the backward and is not permitted to hamper unduly other important national interests. The criteria for selecting the proper beneficiaries of preferential treatment have been the subject of considerable judicial and scholarly attention. 1 Only recently h<j,s the problem of the permissible extent of preferences been the subject of explicit judicial attention. How much preferential treatment is the government constitutionally empowered to provide? This paper attempts to examine the judicial response to some of the issues involved in this question.
