Constitution – Chapter 2 – Protection from discrimination on grounds of race etc
Protection from discrimination on grounds of race etc.
15.- (1) Subject to subsections (4), (5) and (7), no law shall make any provision that is discriminatory either or itself or in its effect.
(2) Subject to subsections (6), (7), (8) and (9), a person shall not be treated in a discriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any written law or in the performance of the functions of any public office or any public authority.
(3) In this section the expression “discriminatory” means affording different treatment to different persons attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place or origin, birth out of wedlock, political opinions or affiliations, color, sex or creed whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such description are not made subject or are accorded privileges or advantages that are not accorded to persons of another such descriptions.
(4) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any law so far as that law makes provision-
a) for the appropriation of public revenues or other public funds;
b) with respect to persons who are not citizens;
c) for the application, in the case of persons of any such description as is mentioned in subsection (3) (or of persons connected with such persons) of the law with respect to adoption, marriage, divorce, burial, devolution of property on death or other like matters that is the personal law of persons of that description; or
d) whereby persons of any such description as is mentioned in subsection (3) may be subjected to any disability or restriction or may be accorded any privilege or advantage that, having regard to its nature and to special circumstances pertaining to those persons or to persons of any other such description, is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society.
(5) Nothing contained in any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of subsection (1) to the extent that it makes provision with respect to standards or qualifications (not being standards or qualifications specifically relating to race, place of origin, birth out of wedlock, political opinions or affiliations, color, creed or sex) to be required of any person who is appointed to or to act in any office under the Crown, any office in the service of a local government authority of any office in a body corporate established by law for public purposes.
(6) Subsection (2) shall not apply to anything that is expressly or by necessary implication authorized to be done by any such provision of law as is referred to in subsection (4) or (5).
(7) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of subsection (1) of (2) to the extent that the law in question makes provision whereby persons of any such description as is mentioned in subsection (3) may be subjected to any restriction on the rights and freedoms guaranteed by section 9, 11, 12, 13 and 14, being such a restriction as is authorized by section 9(2), 11(5), 12(2) or 13(2) or, as the case may be, paragraph (a), (b), of (h) of section 14(3).
(8) Nothing in subsection (2) shall affect any discretion relating to the institution, conduct or discontinuance of civil or criminal proceedings in any court that is vested in any person by or under any law.
(9) Nothing in subsection (2) shall apply in relation to the exercise of any function vested in any person or authority by any of the provisions of this Constitution except sections 78(1), 79(2), 80(1), 82(1), 83 and 85 (which relate to the appointment etc, of public officers).