Federal governemt

This Clause is part of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of United States. Equal Protection clause came into force in 1868, it provides that "no State shall... deny to any person equal protection of the laws". It requires that people in similar situations be considered equal by the law.
The principal motivation before this clause was to authenticate the equality provisions included in the American Civil Rights Act of 1866, which ensured that all individuals would have the guaranteed right to equal protection by law. The 14th Amendment marked a large shift in constitutionalism in America, by applying significantly more constitutional constraints against the states than had applied before the Civil War.
The actual connotation of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject matter of many debates. This clause was the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the case in which the Supreme Court of America decided against the actions of racial segregation, and also the foundation for many other decisions rejecting discrimination and bigotry regarding people belonging to various groups.
In the Indian context, a similar provision can be found in a fundamental right under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which provides for equal protection of law, equality before law and is against arbitrary actions by the State.