Three principles of justice

Detail

Why we need principles of justice

• Justice (giving each person what is due to them) has been debated since ancient times. In Plato's Republic, Socrates questions Cephalus's view that justice means "speaking the truth and paying your debts". Socrates argues that justice means the good of all people.
• Social justice means fairly sharing goods, opportunities and rights in society.
• NCERT gives three principles of justice. A just society must balance all three: 1. Treating equals equally 2. Proportionate justice 3. Recognition of special needs

Principle 1 — Treating equals equally

• Treating equals equally: all humans share common features as human beings. So every person deserves the same rights and the same treatment.
• Rights that must be equal:
• Civil rights: life, liberty and property.
• Political rights: such as the right to vote.

• Social rights: such as equal opportunity.

• No discrimination on the basis of class, caste, race or gender. People should be judged by their work and actions, not by the group they belong to.

• Same work, same reward. NCERT's examples:
• Two people from different castes do the same work, such as breaking stones or delivering pizza. Paying one ₹100 and the other ₹75 is unjust.
• Paying a male teacher more than a female teacher for the same job is unjust.

Legal anchors for "equal pay for equal work"

• Article 39(d) is a Directive Principle of State Policy (a guideline the government must follow when making laws, which courts cannot directly enforce). It asks the State to ensure "equal pay for equal work for both men and women" [4].
• Randhir Singh v. Union of India (1982) turned this guideline into a right that courts can enforce:
• The Supreme Court read Articles 14 and 16 together with the Preamble and Article 39(d). Article 14 gives equality before law. Article 16 gives equality of opportunity in public employment.
• It held that "equal pay for equal work" follows from these Articles. It applies when people doing identical work for the same employer get different pay scales, with no basis or no rational basis for the difference [3].
• The Court said the principle is "not a mere demagogic slogan" but a constitutional goal that can be reached through constitutional remedies [3].

• It also held that the phrase means equal pay for everyone, and not only equal pay between men and women [3].

• Code on Wages, 2019:

• It merged four older laws: the Payment of Wages Act 1936, the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 [2].
• It bans gender discrimination in wages and recruitment for the same work or work of a similar nature [2].
• "Work of a similar nature" means work that needs the same skill, effort, experience and responsibility [2].
• Lok Sabha passed it on 30 July 2019 and Rajya Sabha on 2 August 2019 [2].
• At least one-third of the members of its wage advisory boards must be women [2].

Principle 2 — Proportionate justice

• Proportionate justice: start from equal basic rights. Then give each person rewards in proportion to their effort, skill, risk and quality of work.

• Example: exam marks should depend on how good the answers are. Giving every student the same marks would be unjust.

• Aristotle's proportional equality: equals should be treated equally, and unequals unequally in proportion to their differences. Proportionate justice is a modern form of this idea.

• Under-rewarded workers: some workers do not get rewards that match the danger and skill of their work, for example:
• miners
• skilled craftsmen

• police

• Balance needed: equal treatment must be weighed against proportionality. Too much reward for merit can turn into large inequality. The same reward for everyone ignores effort.

• Link to wage law:
• Under the Code on Wages, 2019, the floor wage is a national minimum below which no state may fix its minimum wage. The Central Government sets it, keeping workers' living standards in mind, and may set different floor wages for different regions [2].
• States cannot lower minimum wages that are already above the floor wage [2].
• Minimum wages are fixed by looking at the skill of workers and the difficulty of work. This is proportionality built into law [2].
• Minimum wages must be reviewed at least once every five years [2].

Principle 3 — Recognition of special needs

• Recognition of special needs: people who are unequal in important ways deserve special help so that they can reach real equality. Examples:
• people with disabilities
• the elderly

• people with no access to good education or health care

• This extends equal treatment rather than contradicting it. Treating unequal people in the same way produces an unequal society. For example, if one runner starts 50 metres behind, a "same rules for all" race is not fair.

• Indian application:
• Deprivation alone is not the whole story in India. Deprivation combined with caste discrimination is the basis for reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Reservation means seats kept aside in legislatures, jobs and education.
• The Constitution's equality code allows this through special provisions for weaker sections.

NCERT's "Let's Think" cases — tested against the three principles

Case	Verdict	Principle at work
Extra time in an exam for Suresh, who is visually impaired	Just	Special needs
Extra time for Geeta, who limps	Depends on whether her condition affects writing the exam	Special needs only where the need is real
Grace marks for weaker students to boost morale	Debatable: helps the weak but weakens the link between marks and performance	Special needs vs proportionate justice
Different question papers for students by ability	Unjust	Breaks treating equals equally
33% reservation for women in Parliament (NCERT calls it "a proposal")	Now law (106th Amendment, 2023)	Special needs / corrective justice

Real-world rules for "Suresh"

• India follows the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 framework. Exam bodies give compensatory time (extra exam time given to make up for a disability) and scribes (helpers who write answers that the candidate speaks).
• In the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2026 notice:
• Persons with Benchmark Disabilities in the categories of low vision, blindness, locomotor disability (both arms affected) and cerebral palsy get 20 minutes extra for every hour of the exam [7].
• Blind candidates get a scribe if they want one. Candidates in other disability categories get a scribe if a government medical officer certifies that they cannot write [7].

• A scribe's qualification cannot be higher than the minimum qualification needed for the exam, and must be at least matriculation [7].

• This shows the special-needs principle written into official rules. Help depends on certified need, which is the "Geeta" test in practice.

Women's reservation: from "proposal" to law

• The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 is also called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (NCERT: "a proposal" of 33% reservation).
• It reserves, as nearly as possible, one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, state Legislative Assemblies and the Delhi Legislative Assembly [5].
• The one-third includes seats for SC and ST women. So within the seats already reserved for SCs and STs, one-third go to women [5].
• When it starts:
• It begins only after delimitation (redrawing constituency boundaries).
• That delimitation must use figures from the first census held after the 2023 Act [5].

• The reservation then lasts 15 years from its start [5].

• Later development:

• The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 April 2026 [6].
• It would remove the rule that delimitation for women's reservation must use the first census after 2023 [6].
• The Delimitation Bill, 2026, introduced with it, would mean the 2011 Census is used for the next delimitation [6].
• The Bill would also raise the maximum size of the Lok Sabha from 550 to 850 members [6].

Harmonising the three principles

• Balancing the three principles is the government's job.
• Too much equal treatment can clash with rewarding merit, which is proportionate justice.

• A merit-only rule hurts the marginalised, who start from behind.

• Different groups favour different principles.

• In admission debates, some argue for pure merit (proportionate justice).
• Others argue for reservation (special needs).

• Others want one common standard for all (equal treatment).

• A just policy mixes all three. Examples:

• Equal pay laws (equals equally)
• Minimum and floor wages linked to skill and difficulty (proportionality)
• Reservation and disability accommodations (special needs)

Prelims Hooks

• Article 39(d) is a Directive Principle on "equal pay for equal work for both men and women". It is not a Fundamental Right in itself.
• Randhir Singh v. Union of India (1982) made "equal pay for equal work" enforceable by reading Arts. 14 and 16 with Art. 39(d).
• The Code on Wages, 2019 absorbed the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, the Minimum Wages Act 1948, the Payment of Wages Act 1936 and the Payment of Bonus Act 1965.
• Under the Code on Wages, the floor wage is fixed by the Central Government. No state minimum wage can be lower than it.
• The 106th Amendment (2023) reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies and the Delhi Assembly. It does not cover the Rajya Sabha or state Legislative Councils. It lasts 15 years.
• Trap: women's reservation under the 106th Amendment starts after delimitation, not straight away from 2023.
• Aristotle is linked to proportional equality, which is the root of proportionate justice.
• UPSC gives compensatory time of 20 minutes per hour to eligible Persons with Benchmark Disabilities.
• In NCERT's case list, giving different question papers by ability violates treating equals equally. Extra time for a visually impaired student fits recognition of special needs.

Mains Points

• Equality vs merit: reservation and accommodations can look like they "violate" equal treatment. In fact they extend it, because treating unequals equally keeps inequality in place. Use Suresh/Geeta and the RPwD exam rules to show that help should be need-based and verified, not given to everyone.
• Equal pay as justiciable equality: the line runs from Art. 39(d) to Randhir Singh (1982) to the Code on Wages 2019. It shows how a non-justiciable Directive Principle became an enforceable right and then statute law. Gaps remain in enforcement, especially for informal and women workers.
• Proportionate justice and risky work: miners, sanitation workers, police and skilled artisans are under-rewarded. A statutory floor wage and minimum wages based on skill and difficulty are tools, but proper risk pay and social security are still needed.
• Women's reservation and delay: the 106th Amendment applies the special-needs principle to politics. But tying it to census and delimitation has delayed it, and the 131st Amendment Bill, 2026 tries to change that. This raises the question of whether justice delayed weakens the purpose of the reform.