Saniya Yadav

BA LLB (B)
20171344

Distributive Justice in India

Since the beginning of time the most important aspect of humanity is justice. It basically refers to giving someone what he
deserves or what is owed to him by fair means. Because it is referred to as the most important concept in law, it restricts and
makes the differing claims, wishes and securities very peaceful in all factors of the public and people in the society. Distributive
justice basically brings out the entire economic side of the fact of distribution of goods and services in the social setting around
us and social justice in any age or setting.

Distributive Justice talks about distribution in an equal framework and promoting equality. It's aim is to create an evident
balance. The aim of distributive justice is to create a balance in the socio-economic structure of the living environment in
terms of economic, social and political foundations and to bring an equal setting between the different mindsets of
individuals. It is so said that the issue of distributive justice in meaning is much more of a matter of fairness to individuals than of functional
meaning of right or wrong of any rules. It would also seem that bad rules too couldhaveajustapplicationandgoodrulescouldhaveanunfair
applicationbut itdoesn’tmeanthat it doesn’tconcernthe functional law.

A lot in general is dependent on the structure of a society. In order to create distributive justice, there needs to
be created a public system of rules in order to determine and refer authoritatively to the conflicting claims that
arise. Distributive justice is an essential part or function of a fair society. The Indian society contains such
complex and varied problems that a single method to promote distributive justice cannot be discovered. The
Indian Constitution talks about the concept of justice in its Preamble and also in Article 38 which mentions
directive principles of the state policy. It doesn’t only talk of justice but also of social, political and economic
justice. It does not only envision a corrective justice system in which the rights as well as the obligations arise
from the social structure at present and then are enforced. It was a clear indication that the present structure
wasn’t just and was required to be changed. This is when distributive justice came up.

Since men started to mirror their connections and relations to each other they have been occupied with the
meaning of justice as it’s such a common concept. Justice and natural law share an institutional immorality that
basically creates a constant inconsistency. The concept is so old that a lot has been said about it and so new that
it creates a regular problem in the regularly changing modern society. As Aristotle said, “Justice, is the bond of
men in society.” and as Augustine said “States without justice are robber- bands.” Justice became the main focus
of the religions and of the philosophers of political, legal and moral fields.

Justice is considered to be the primary goal of a welfare state whose very existence in turn rests on the
parameters of justice. The greatest contrast, however, between ancient and modern thinking about the social
harmony of justice is in the changed conception of individual personality in relation of law. The importance of
justice as a subject and its frequent use would eventually make an individual believe that justice is present as an
accepted defined term and a useful and meaningful definition of justice is possible to be carved out.

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In a modern or up-to-date society, it is necessary to understand that all of the goods that are present will be
distributed amongst the entire society in some way or the other. This has only begun taking place in the recent era,
earlier when there were monarchs and kingdoms, everything would be in the leader’s name and the public or their
people would only be allowed to enjoy the same under his name. There isn’t any power which is the owner of all
the goods in our western or modern society. The addressing of who is the owner of these goods and how did they
acquire them is explained by the concept of distributive justice.

Distributive Justice is a view that looks at the ownership of all the goods in the modern times. It has a concept
which states that equal amount of work amongst individuals provides them with the outcome in regard to
acquiring or buying the goods. The characteristic of distributive justice is the expansion of the spirit of

collectivism, the promotion of the feeling of co-operation and the exercise by society of its collective powers in
support of the legitimate claims of individual life. Its formula is “to every man according to his needs” rather than
“to every man according to his deserts. ” The distributive justice considers how it can secure too each individual a
standard of living and such a share in the values of civilization as shall make possible a full existence of human
life.

In all these customs, the idea of justice according to law is with time spread through by the idea of justice in
concept of the distributive justice. It asks for equality while providing wages or for providing adequate
distribution of giving out of advantages. The advantages which are supposed be given out are of various kinds
such as taxes, property, wages, rights and duties as assigned and distributed by the legal frameworks.
Distributive justice tries to create a stability in the socio- economic structure of the setting.

Distributive justice includes the quality of being just and fair to all the individuals in the society or group. It
seeks to give everyone what is due to him. What is due cannot be ascertained by absolute standards because the
standards change with changes in the socio-economic conditions of the society. It does not mean only a just
distribution of the material goods of life, but also means and includes the reasonable requirements of human
body, mind and spirit. Distributive justice requires the value of being equal and equitable to all in society and
community individuals. It wants to give to everyone what is due to them. Absolute standards cannot decide by
what is due because the standards change with changes in society's socio-economic conditions. It does not only
mean a fair distribution of life's material goods, but also means the necessary needs of the mind, human body as
well as spirit.

Distributive justice stresses on favored treatment of the lower sections of the society, but that is only asked to fix the imbalances
currently present in the society and not to cause needless bothering or injustice to the upper sections thereof. Thus, it pursues the
removing of the imbalances in the life of the people living together in the society. Distributive Justice cannot be present in a society unless a
society progresses in every way. In short it helps in bringing out a just society. It seeks to provide an uplanned aid to the
underprivileged, so that they have an equal opening to compete confidently with the more progressive sections of the
society. It is a collection of rights, in a sense it is taken out of other rights in another sense, it is a keeper of other rights.
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It is often repeated that the philosophies relating to justice must take into consideration at least two important factors of
distributive process. The entire amount of goods (or utility) to the distributed and the distributional process explained correctly
as the ‘principle of choosing by ways of which the allocation is arrived’. An effort is made here to inspect the various aspects
of these theories and to determine the degree to which they fulfill the demands of the distributive justice.
Utilitarianism’s basic premise talks about the greatest good of the greatest number of people. As the premise
suggests, utilitarianism as a concept is aggressive in nature. The character of justice is distributive in nature and
the three principles of justice as mentioned above demand that a person’s quality should determine the share of
good received by them. This makes it very unlikely that utilitarian theory would be able to accommodate
principles that contrast with the greatest happiness principles.
These decisions crippled the state machinery and paralyzed the movement of the nation towards an equalitarian
social order. These decisions represent a saga of judicial misunderstanding of the avowed ideals of the
Constitution. This approach is inherently inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution ignoring the realities of
the Indian societal structure. The poverty of the Indian masses cannot be mitigated by eulogizing the fundamental
liberties and mellowing down the positive efforts of state destined at distributive justice. The Constitutional goals
of distributive justice can be achieved only if the courts adopt a pragmatic and sociological approach without
making such ado about the rights in interpreting socio-economic legislations.
It is submitted that both fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy aim at establishing a just social
order based on the philosophy of distributive justice ensuring dignity to the individual not only to the few
privileged persons, but to the entire masses of the country including the have nots and the handicapped, the
lowliest and the lost. Both these represent a broad spectrum of human rights. The concept of distributive justice as
embodied in the Constitution is a living concept of revolutionary import. It gives sustenance to the rule of law and
meaning and significance to the ideals of a welfare state. The freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution are not
an end in itself, but the means to achieve distributive justice.
The paper submits that why somebody focused on aggregating good should mind how that good is disseminated
among different individuals. The principle shortcoming of the utilitarian hypothesis from the point of view of
distributive justice is that it concurs a central role to the amount of good or welfare. This has been called attention
to by Brandit in the accompanying words: “If quantity of welfare can be raised by a grossly unequal distribution-
for instance, as in an efficient system of slavery- then we have to favor inequality.

Man requires the largest variation of needs, for instance the need for eating, rest and rest, occupation, sexual
needs, culture and knowledge, aesthetic experience and diversion, power, social esteem, love, and so on. in case of
a situation where all the needs of an individual can't be fulfilled, there arises a situation wherein he has to decide,
for instance, between reading a book or going to a restaurant, the decision is not a rational alternative between two
measurable forms of pleasure. As indicated by John Rawls: "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on
justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override". According to Rawls, society is a co-operative
venture that works towards mutual advantage. In such a society, there is a social association and a common end,
imagined not as a substantive objective, yet as an arrangement of conduct and behaviors which will guarantee that
the endowments of each will complement the benefit of all. The real difference between men in terms of social
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advantages, natural ability, etc are viewed as promoting social discord. These differences lead to men blindly
pursuing their own forms of advantage. Thus, the only basis for justice should be what all men have in common: a
moral personality. Thus, the utilitarian theory fails to accommodate this version of justice. Rawls offers an
alternative: “All social primary goods- liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self- respect
are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these goods is to the advantage of the
least favored.”
The preamble of the Indian Constitution states that each citizen of India deserves social, economic and political
justice along with an equality in status, opportunity and to promote fraternity. The preamble assures in every way:
dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation.
The Objective resolution states: : This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim
India as an Independent Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution: a) Wherein
shall be guaranteed and secured to all the people of India justice, social, economic and political; equality of status,
of opportunity, and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association
and action, subject to law and public morality; and b) Wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for
minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes. According to Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan, this is intended to move towards a smooth and obstacle free transfer of a state of serfdom to a
state of freedom. He emphasizes on the need for this change and insists on remaking the material conditions.
Thus, clearly, the Founding Fathers indicated that this kind of justice is distributive. In order to make this
transition more efficient, there is a need of a change in the social structures of the society and talks about
remaking the basic material conditions of society. As Granville Austin puts it, the constitution was destined to
achieve a wide range of goals. Social Revolution was the most transcended of them all and it assumed that this
revolution would help fulfill the basic needs of the common man. The constitution also hoped that the revolution
would help and fundamentally and structurally transform the Indian Society. Thus, in all facets of the constitution,
as mentioned in the Objective Resolution, from the preamble to the fundamental rights and to the directive
principles, this concept of distributive justice is emphasized.
Thus, the gist of the entire thing can be stated as, the constitution clearly gives the state the job to promote the
welfare of the people and promote their security by protecting the social order, in which, and the social, economic
and political justice that will be a part of the institutions of national life. Thus, in order to effectively form a social
order, the Indian populace is granted fundamental rights. Along with this, the directive principles of state policy
express the ideals of distributive justice very categorically. According to Article 38, the state inter-alia is required
to minimize all the inequalities (income, status, etc.) and should strive to eliminate all inequalities in statue,
opportunities, facilities, etc. amongst all individuals, groups of people and people engaged in/ residing in all
vocations/areas.
Article 39 orders to state to accord all citizens adequate means of livelihood; distribute the ownership and control
of resources in a way to serve the common good; it is tasked to ensure that the economic system operates I a way
which does not lead to a concentration in the wealth and means of production; it has to ensure an equal pay for
equal pay work; it is tasked with the duty to protect the workers, men women and children from any abuse and
needs to ensure that citizens are not forced to enter into vocations due to economic necessity- especially vocations
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that may be unsuited to their age or strength and may be harmful in nature. Finally, it ensures that all children are
given equal and credible opportunities of growth and enough space to grow in a health manner with dignity and
freedom to protect their childhood from any form of exploitations or abandonment.
Another responsibility of the state is to ensure that free legal aid is used to provide equal justice, without any form
of denial (no matter if the reason is economic or because of any other disability); to provide education and public
assistance to the unemployed, the old, the sick and the disabled; to provide equal rights to work; ensuring human
working conditions including maternity relief, living wage, along with conditions ensuring a decent living
standard, enjoyment of leisure, social and cultural events; it has to ensure that workers participate in undertakings,
establishments or engaging in the industry; it has to provide all citizens a uniform civil code; for all children
below 14 years of age, free and compulsory education; promote all the interests of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes and all the other weaker sections of society; it is tasked with ensuring that the level of nutrition,
standard of living and public health are improved and on a rise. In conclusion, we can say that the Indian
Constitution has twin objectives: the first objective is to ensure that a new social order is distributed, one that
focuses in ensuring that all citizens are entitled to distributive justice; secondly, it strives to protect all the liberties
of the people from any kind of autocratic and arbitrary power. These two ideas make up the entire basic
framework of the constitution and are embroiled in the scheme of the Constitution.
It is shown that both directive principles and fundamental rights aim at creating a fair social order based on the theories of
distributive justice ensuring self-worth to the individual not only to the very few fortunate persons, but to the entire masses of the
society including the underprivileged and the handicapped. Both ofthese eventually show a huge range of human rights. The idea of
distributive justice as personified in the Constitution is an existing concept of radical import. It gives a backbone to the rule of law
and the meaning and importance to the principles of a welfare state.

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