I.A. Ansari, J.

1. Arbitrariness is anti-thesis of the rule of law, for, arbitrariness encourages the State and its rulers to act on their whims and fancies making thereby their actions unpredictable and non-transparent. The greatest advantage, therefore, of a civil society, which is governed by rule of law, is that it does not permit the persons, at the helm of its affairs, to indulge in arbitrariness or act on the basis of mere whims and fancies, the result being that the decision to be reached by the State may not be known, but the methods to be chosen or the steps to be adopted by such a State and its instrumentalities to arrive at their decision remain known and are predictable. Such a decision-making process does not suffer from any element of unpredictability and/or arbitrariness. Such a society is, therefore, regarded as transparent, fair and non-arbitrary.

2. Ours is a society based on a Constitution, which makes all possible provisions to save its citizens from becoming victims of arbitrariness of the acts of the State and its instrumentalities. Article 14, which forms the bedrock of our Constitution, rests on the principle of ensuring non-arbitrariness by the State