ABSTRACT
Rules of law must be impartial … impartiality is in fact one of the main elements of reasonableness. There is a presumption that all the inhabitants of this country enjoy civil rights under the law. The rules of law must consequently provide equality of treatment for all persons, irrespective of wealth, colour, race, religion or any other characteristic. Thus, for the enjoyment or protection of rights, ‘it makes no difference whether the individual occupies a hut or a palace’: whether he be white or coloured, a European or a non-European. It follows that rules of law must make no difference depending on differences of class in the treatment of persons. Hence ‘class legislation which presses unduly on certain sections of the community, by oppressing them or interfering with their rights, is invalid’. 1
