JOHN RAWLS, PROTECTIVE DISCRIMINATION AND INDIAN JUDICIARY

Introduction
Every program implementing Protective discrimination or Preferential treatment involves
counter-balancing the principles of Justice and equality. An inquiry is necessary to understand, how
far these programs are justified with the reference to the principles of justice, equality and utility. Also
whether, it is possible to defend preferential treatment policies as an application to the principles of
social justice and compensatory justice of the Rawlsian principle of ‘Justice as fairness’. This kind of
analysis it is hoped, will have some bearing on the eventual resolution of the different legal problems
associated with preferential treatment. An examination of the policy of preferential treatment in
the light of the Rawlsian theory of Justice is made in this paper to get a holistic jurisprudential
understanding of these issues.