Court case(1974) 4 SCC 3

E.P. Royappa, a senior IAS officer serving as Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, was transferred first to the newly created post of Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Commission and then appointed Officer on Special Duty. He alleged that the transfers were mala fide, prompted by the Chief Minister's hostility, and that the new posts were inferior in status and responsibility, violating Articles 14, 16 and 311.

The petition was dismissed on the facts: the Court found the posts of equivalent status and mala fides not proved to the high standard required against a Chief Minister. But Bhagwati J, for himself, Chandrachud and Krishna Iyer JJ, laid down a new approach to Article 14. Equality, he said, is a dynamic concept with many aspects and dimensions and cannot be 'cribbed, cabined and confined' within traditional and doctrinaire limits. From a positivistic point of view, equality is antithetic to arbitrariness; equality and arbitrariness are sworn enemies. Where an act is arbitrary it is implicitly unequal both according to political logic and constitutional law and is therefore violative of Article 14. Articles 14 and 16 strike at arbitrariness in State action and ensure fairness and equality of treatment.