FROM CONSICENCE TO COURT ROOM: THE EVOLUTION OF EQUITY IN LAW

ABSTRACT

This Legal Research Article is based on the topic evolution of equity in historical perspective and its relationship with law. This paper aims to examine and give a clear understanding about the historical evolution of equity, its significance, relevance of equity in contemporary world in relation to different legal systems such as particularly with English Common Law, Roman law of jus civile and its relation and significance in Indian law. Equity emerged as principle in Ancient Roman law before its evolution in common law of England. It was evolved by the praetor’s attempt to provide a just and fairer justice to the common people. As jus civile was a law just for roman citizens in ancient roman law eventually by introduction of equity as principle for fairer justice it reformed the strict structure of jus civile which later on became inclusive of equity in judicial decisions as an important component to determine justice. Also, due to attempts of praetor jus gentium was evolved as a separate law to deals with non-roman citizens.

This development in roman law provided a conceptual framework or basis to equity as a principle in other legal systems of world. Equity emerged in the 13^th century in common law of England as a reaction of its rigid and formal structure, which led to development of court of Chancery to provide fair and just remedies to common people. But due to this development issues emerged in England as it was difficult to run two legal system parallelly and was troubling for common people. Therefore, in a landmark Earl of Oxford’s Case (1615) which provided dominance to equity as a factor in cases of conflict. Now equity prevails over common law in cases of conflict. Due to this development in Judicature Acts of 1873-75 eventually led to fusion of equity and law in England and created a unified system of court where equitable principles were incorporated in legal matters.

As we all know Indian Legal system traces back its history from common law of England therefore equity in India also plays an essential role and ensures to provide a just and fairer justice to the people. It influences multiple areas of Indian Law such as Family law, Contract ale, judicial Interpretations (under article 142) and judgements, constitutional interpretations etc. it also aims to provide remedies like injunction, rectification etc. based on principles of equity. Therefore, the overall article attempted to bring focus on equity as a vital mechanism to provide fairer justice, flexibility in the decision making for benefit of common people.

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between Equity and Law is an ancient concept which draws its roots from Ancient Legal system. It was a landmark development for the history of ancient law in Common law system and Indian legal system. Historically, Law and Equity since their existence in the ancient society remained as a separate discipline to determine justice from their own perspective. Therefore, combining the two most significant evolution i.e. relationship between Law and Equity remained the pivotal development in English Legal System. Equity is not a rigid concept which can’t be changed or evolve rather it is an evolving principle which is flexible to make certain changes and development in itself according to interpretations or historic evolution. It plays an important role to deliver justice in a more just and fair way.

[1]The word ‘Equity’ is derived from lain word ‘Aequitas’ which means justice, fairness or more evenness in delivering justice. It is separate from word ‘Equality’ as equality means equal treatment for all or equal distribution of resources among all i.e. whether rich or poor whereas ‘Equity’ means equality among the equals or state of being fair i.e. promoting fairness or justice in the way people are treated. Therefore, in law also equity aims to promote more fairness and justice in rigid or strict laws. In cases where the common law may have been more strictly applied to deliver justice, equity provides a different set of rules to influence a stricter implication of common law in a fairer or just way or to promote natural justice.

Man is a social animal. To fulfil their need they interact and as being different from each other all possess divergent and different views conflicting to another person views and this creates a state of chaos or disharmony among the people. Therefore, to maintain state of balance and harmony among the people some authority was required to provide some set of rules and regulate actions of people to live peacefully in the society. This led to develop of ‘State’ as a political sovereign authority and hence ‘LAW’ evolved. Law is a set of basic rules and regulations which obliges a man to recognise obligation to respects rights of another. Law provides a basic code of conduct to maintain harmony and peaceful existence in the society and if any person fails to do so it is treated with help of sanction in order to create a deterrent effect in society. The law in society is necessary to prevent chaos and conflict.

Therefore, law is necessary to maintain harmony and prevent conflict and chaos in the society. But sometimes while exercising its authority state may provide a more harsh and coercive punishment which may go against individual basic natural rights. So, principle of equity is essential for fairness to prevent strict or harder rules of state which eventually leads to injustice

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EQUITY

UNDER COMMON LAW

• [2]Equity was developed during the 13^th In the context of equity, a judge is not a person who just follows the instructions as a machine and applies penalty for an offence rather he should a person who should reduce the degree of strictness in order to promote fairness. This suggests that the court and law should consider the position of person he/she holds in the society who demands justice and agree to an empathetic approach that reduces the rigidness of law. Before the origin of equity, the common law system was dominant in the English Legal system in England.
• Initially, there existed Anglo-Saxon courts were people in open sit for meetings. Slowly theses courts were replaced and led to evolution of Common Law in England. Here the cases were seen by king in three primary courts. Firstly, the KING BENCH which took over both civil and criminal matters in the ancient England which mainly involves the crown. The other was COURT OF COMMON PLEA which mainly focused on the disputes of civil nature which occurred between the common people and lastly was COURT OF EXCHEQUER whose main concern was to entertain the cases which were related to royal revenue. The system of three courts was strict as whosoever want any legal remedy was required to secure writ from the chancellor of king. This writ provide validity to the case to be heard as without this no legal action can be taken further in matter of that case which was a drawback of these courts as it leads to delayed justice to the people. Therefore, the system was very rigid and was not flexible.
• In 13^th century people started to seek assistance from the CHANCELLOR to attain a more fair and equitable remedies unlike the solutions provided by the courts within the strict boundaries of common law. The chancellor was given title ‘The Keeper of King Conscience’. All these events led to evolution of COURT OF CHANCERY where decisions were made on basis of reason, fairness and equity. Here the chancellor acted as a chief judge who decides the cases on basis of fairness and equity. He evolved principles that earlier common law system missed to incorporate in itself. It included equity as priority basis to decide justice.
• However, some conflict began to rise when both the systems worked together and its conflict culminated in the landmark case [3]Earl of Oxford case (1615) when James I (the king of England) said that Equity would prevail above the common law in the matter of conflict i.e. this led to intervention of court of chancery in common law matters and principles.
• Due to this development in [4]Judicature Acts of 1873-75 eventually led to fusion of equity and law in England and created a unified system of court where equitable principles were incorporated in legal matters.

UNDER ROMAN LAW

• Equity is a concept which was developed much earlier than the common law in England. In Common law chancery court system was adopted to provide justice incorporating equity but roman law adopted a gradual process of tempering the strict legal system.
• The concept of equity gradually developed and mitigated strictness in roman law system from jus civile to jus gentium. The major role was played by praetor which helped in the transition from strictness and incorporating more fairness in jus civile.
• The word equity is derived from Latin word “Aequitas” which means fairness, justice and equality. Initially in countries like Rome and England the word equity remained as a philosophical concept which talks about natural justice and was not incorporated in the formal law system of the state.
• The early roman law was more formal and based on rituals. Only the roman people in early roman society can have access to early roman law. After that a turning point came in the development of equity in roman law. Praetor, played a major role in incorporating equity in roman law. He was a judicial magistrate who addressed the need of equity in justice of cases and used his discretion to introduce more flexible rules.
• The praetor saw the unfairness which jus civile (law which govern the roman citizens) promoted and hence started to intervene in the matters where due to application of strict rules of jus civile people suffer with biased and discriminatory justice. He stated intervening in the matters on regular basis due to which it became more common and known to citizens.
• Praetor’s intervention based on principles of equality i.e. morality, fairness and equality eventually resulted in systematic form. With the passage of time these set of principles evolved as a separate body of law and worked parallelly with the ancient law jus civile and attempted to temper or soften its rigidness.
• Later on, a new concept “jus gentium” was developed by praetor as an alternate to handle those disputes which are concerned mainly to non-citizens as an attempt to ensure justice. Both the praetor and jus gentium eventually provided principes and remedies which addressed the weakness of ancient roman law.

FUSION OF EQUITY AND LAW

There was need for the fusion of Law and equity. Initially the principles of common law system were very rigid i.e. they were not flexible whereas the chancery court decisions were more flexible and were based on Equity. Therefore, people those who seek fairness and flexibility with equitable remedies were heard in chancery court. Hence, a person who wanted both common law and equitable remedy was required to file two suits in both the courts or legal system which was difficult and confusing for the general people. Even sometimes it created chaos and confusion and the interpretation of the both courts sometimes overlaps each other. Therefore, it was necessary to merge or fuse both the legal systems in a one hierarchical court

By the mid-19^th century, it was clear that two legal systems can’t run parallelly within the same state therefore, legislation was passed which resulted in merger of two legal systems in single court hierarchy laying foundation stone for modern Court system i.e. JUDICATURE ACT 1873-75 Instead to abolishing the principle of equity used by the Chancery court they actually incorporated the principle of equity in their acts and also recognized its significance for the future cases. Due to this development now the plaintiff could commence their suit in one court which will deliver the justice based on principles of both common law and Chancery court i.e. equity to ensure the application of equity principle while delivering justice to the plaintiff.

After the fusion of Common law and Chancery court it reduced confusion and helped the individual to seek justice based on both common law and equitable remedy. The Administration became easy for the cases and delivery of fair justice was ensured. A uniform system was developed as procedures of both the courts were brought under the same head. Principle of equity proved to be an important component of justice without which justice was incomplete. It enhanced the judicial system and provided a new direction to the judiciary. The equity is a guidance to deliver justice with fairness, morality and equity. However, in contemporary era, In India in recent judgements the judges have asserted to adopt a new and fresh approach rather than the one which the English law includes.

EQUITY IN INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM 

[5]Most of the principles and rules in India have been represented in the statute law. These included principle of equity etc. equity plays a vital role in Indian Legal system and also applicable in multiple areas of law where it suggests and helps to provide remedy which supports the court to resolve the dispute fairly without any rigidity. Equity is a significant part of Indian legal system. It ensures that fair justice should be delivered even in those cases where even the strict legal rules are inadequate to provide justice to the plaintiff. It is important as it acts as a balancing component to manage the rigid structure of legal system and laws to provide justice fairly and equitably. Equity acts as a tool for the judges to tailor the remedies and act flexibly to provide fair justice to everyone in cases of complicated legal issues where law fails to provide clear remedy.  Equitable remedies include remedies such as Injunction, rectification, specific performance etc. All these remedies are evolved to protect individual rights to get fair justice and prevents the violation of legal right of Individual. The most essential point is that equity is not replacement to common law rather it acts as a tool to fill the gaps of common law while providing remedy. Therefore, equity compliments the law equity in applicable in multiple areas of Indian Law and plays vital role in providing fair remedy to solve the dispute:

• CONTRACT LAW: in Indian Law equity commonly applies in contract where the court uses equity as a mode to provide fair and just remedy in case of breach of contract such as Injunction, Rectification, Specific Performance etc. Used in the matters where there is any unlawful commitment of act within the contract or enforcement of contractual obligation.
• FAMILY LAW: Fairness is the key principle of equity and it is integral in the disputes arising among the family sauch as divorce, custody of child, separation etc. here the principle of equity is used by the courts to ensure justice and welfare of the victims of such act. In the cases of Custody of child, the first priority of the court is protection of child welfare by application of principle of natural justice, fairness etc that go beyond the complex legal issues administered under these cases.
• CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS: Equity is equal treatment of equals therefore this principlal is inserted in the constitution of India under Article 14 by guaranteeing Right to Equality. This is inserted to promote fairness, justice and equity among the people.
• JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION: equity is used in Indian courts in order to interpret the laws which view point of equity and correct the rigidness and ensure flexibility in the laws to ensure a fair justice. In Article 142 of Indian the SC has power to do complete justice.

CONCLUSION

Equity is a principal which has been evolving in Indian Legal system since decades also it draws its roots from various legal systems which also includes English Common law System, Hindu law, Muslim Law etc. In contemporary legal systems equity is a pivotal and necessary component which not only offers flexibility but also provides just remedies for individuals so that they can get proper remedy and fair justice. The core of equity lies in its principle of fairness, Justice etc. which provides a roadmap for the growth of courts to attain fairness and justice in their decisions and judgements. Equity ensures proper guidance for courts to achieve fairness in diverse areas of laws such as contract law, family law, constitution, Judicial interpretations etc. It also provides equitable remedies such as Injunction, rectification etc. in order to maintain fairness and justice in the legal remedy provided by the courts to the aggrieved parties even when other laws in the legal system fails to incorporate justice, flexibility, fairness and removing rigidity from its structure

REFERENCES

[1] Sarah Wilson, Law and Equity, and “Law and History” as a resource of Critique 11(1) Polemos 23-40 (2017)

[2] Shreemanshu Kumar Dash, Equity and Law 5(11) paripex- indian journal of research 252-254 (2016)

[3] Earl of Oxford’s Case, (1615) 21 Eng. Rep. 485 (Ch.)

[4] Supreme Court of Judicature Acts (1873-1875), 36&37 Vict. c.; 38&39 Vict. c. 77 (UK)

[5]Aishwarya Aggarwal, Equity Law in India law Bhoomi (Oct.8, 2024), available at https://lawbhoomi.com/equity-law-in-india/ (last visited on Nov. 16, 2025)