Case Name : State of Odisha & Another vs Anup Kumar Senapati & Another Case Reference: (2019) 12 SCR 472 Case Number: CA No. 7295/2019 Court: Supreme Court Bench: 03 Coram: Arun Mishra (Author), S Abdul Nazeer, MR Shah Date: 16.09.2019
There is no concept of negative equality under Article 14 of the Constitution. In case the person has a right, he has to be treated equally, but where right is not available, a person cannot claim rights to be treated equally as the right does not exist, negative equality when the right does not exist, cannot be claimed. (Para 30
Basawaraj vs Special Land Acquisition Officer, (2013) 14 SCC 81, It is a settled legal proposition that Article 14 of the Constitution is not meant to perpetuate illegality or fraud, even by extending the wrong decisions made in other cases. The said provision does not envisage negative equality but has only a positive aspect. Thus, if some other similarly situated persons have been granted some relief/benefit inadvertently or by mistake, such an order does not confer any legal right on others to get the same relief as well. If a wrong is committed in an earlier case, it cannot be perpetuated. Equality is a trite, which cannot be claimed in illegality and therefore, cannot be enforced by a citizen or court in a negative manner. If an illegality and irregularity has been committed in favour of an individual or a group of individuals or a wrong order has been passed by a judicial forum, others cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the higher or superior court for repeating or multiplying the same irregularity or illegality or for passing a similarly wrong order. A wrong order/decision in favour of any particular party does not entitle any other party to claim benefits on the basis of the wrong decision. Even otherwise, Article 14 cannot be stretched too far for otherwise it would make functioning of administration impossible. (Vide Chandigarh Admn vs Jagjit Singh,(1995) 1 SCC 745, Anand Buttons Ltd vs State of Haryana, (2005) 9SCC 164, KK Bhalla vs State of MP, (2006) 3 SCC 581 and Fuljit Kaur vs State of Punjab, (2010) 11 SCC 455.)
Chaman Lal vs State of Punjab (2014) 15 SCC 715 | Fuljit Kaur vs State of Punjab (2010) 11 SCC 455 | Doiwala Sehkari Shram Samvida Samiti Ltd vs State of Uttaranchal (2007) 11 SCC 641 | Bondu Ramaswamy vs Bangalore Development Authority (2010) 7 SCC 129 | Kulwinder Pal Singh vs State of Punjab (2016) 6 SCC 532 | State of UP vs Rajkumar Sharma (2006) 3 SCC 330 | Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation vs Subhash Sindhi Cooperative Housing Society, Jaipur (2013) 5 SCC 427 | Arup Das vs State of Assam (2012) 5 SCC 559 | State of Orissa vs Mamata Mohanty (2011) 3 SCC 436
See also: Constitution - Article 14
PDF: State of Odisha vs Anup Kumar Senapati, (2019) 12 SCR 472.pdf