Developing nations, particularly in the Global East and South, often face disproportionate international scrutiny and pressure even as they continue to grapple with the legacy of colonialism, said Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Wednesday while addressing a legal forum in Russia.

Wealthier nations are not always held to the same standards, he observed.

"Numerous nations within the Global East and South are still in the process of constructing their institutions, addressing the repercussions of colonialism, and tackling poverty on a scale that the original drafters of international covenants could not have envisioned. These countries frequently endure scrutiny and pressure that are not proportionally applied to wealthier and more influential States, whose own compliance records are not necessarily irreproachable," he said.

He noted that while international human rights instruments embody lofty ideals, their implementation has not always been equitable.

He went on to opine that international declarations and institutions alone cannot sustain the international legal order unless they rest on the twin foundations of equal justice and equal law.

"Equal justice and equal law are not ceremonial phrases. They are the conditions under which a legal order may credibly call itself law at all," he emphasised.

The CJI was speaking at the 14th St Petersburg International Legal Forum in Russia, on the theme, "Equal Justice, Equal Law: Access as the Measure of International Law's Humanity."

In his address, he spoke of how equal access to law is the first step towards achieving equality. He said that access to law cannot remain a procedural formality and must result in the conferment of actual rights.

"My answer, which I draw from my experience presiding over the world's largest and most complex judicial systems, is that the first step to equality is providing equal access to the law,” he said.

Drawing on India's experience, CJI Kant said the country's Constitution guarantees equality before the law, life with dignity, and equal justice. However, the real challenge has been ensuring these guarantees reach people across geographical, economic, social and linguistic barriers.

He noted that Indian courts have progressively expanded access to justice by relaxing rules of legal standing, strengthening free legal aid, entertaining letters as public interest petitions and treating procedure as a servant of justice, not its master.

"We have learned that the most significant obstacle to equality is not the lack of legal or statutory support, but rather it is manifested on account of geographical, social, and economic disparities. Consequently, the Indian Constitutional Courts have interpreted and provided a broad and expansive interpretation of constitutional guarantees in order to eliminate all such barriers," he said.

CJI Kant also reflected on the foundations of equality in legal thought, saying that, in his view, the concept predates the Magna Carta and can be traced to Kautilya's Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, governance and law.

He said the text propounded the theory of equality and held that even a king must remain subject to the law.

"And Arthashastra did not stand alone. The Roman lex regia, the Islamic tradition of shari'a as a constraint upon the sovereign, the Ubuntu philosophy of communal obligation in African jurisprudence—each arrived, by its own path and in its own tongue, at the very same foundational compact of Equality," he added.

He further emphasised that equality before the law was never a privilege to be dispensed by those in power to those they considered deserving, but a foundational principle of legality. Without it, he said, law would amount to nothing more than the organised will of the stronger party.

"It should therefore be well understood that equality before the law was not a privilege to be dispensed by the powerful to those they deemed deserving. It has always been the grammar of legality itself. Without it, what we call law — is merely the organised will of the stronger party."

Touching upon international legal order, CJI Kant went on to observe that the true test of equality lies not in treaties or institutions but in whether every sovereign State and every individual has meaningful access to law and effective remedies.

"The fact that the question must still be posed is, in my opinion, an indictment in itself," he remarked.