212 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
individual discretion being open to an Equity Judge. Equity is a settled system of conscience.
The limits of the Chancellor’s authority
- This prerogative to grant relief had certain limits :—
(i) It could be exercised only where law gave no rights but where conscience required that certain rights should be given—This was known as the Exclusive jurisdiction of Equity.
(ii) It could be exercised only where law gave rights required by conscience but the remedies which it gave were insufficient to satisfy justice—This was known as the concurrent jurisdiction of Equity.
(iii) It could be exercised in matters in which the law gave rights required by conscience and remedies sufficient to satisfy the ends of justice but as to which its process was too defective to secure the remedies without the assistance of Equity—This was known as the auxiliary jurisdiction of Equity.
The nature of an equitable right
The nature of an equitable right will be better understood if it was studied in contrast with a moral right and a legal right. A mere definition would be very little use.
By way of introduction we may begin by seeking to have a precise conception of a right. What do we mean when we say that any given individual has a right :
(i) If a man by his own force or persuasion can carry out his wishes, either by his own accord or by influencing the acts of others, he has the ‘might’ so to carry out his wishes.
(ii) If, irrespectively of having or not having this night, public opinion would view with approval or at least with acquiescence, his so carrying out his wishes, and with disapproval any resistence made to his so doing then he has a ‘ moral right ’ so to carry out his wishes.
(iii) If, irrespectively of the approval or disapproval, acquiescence or non-acquiescence of public opinion, the State would support him in carrying out his wishes then he has a legal right so to carry out his wishes.
- Whether it is a question of might, depends upon a man’s own powers of force or persuation. Whether it is a question of moral right depends on the readiness of public opinion to express itself on his side. Whether it is a question of legal right, depends upon the readiness of the State to exert its force on his