-54been allocated to him. But that was turned down. The Housing Authority repossessed the unit. She became homeless, and was admitted to a street sleeper shelter. All that she received from her late husband’s estate was a sum of $982.37. She lived on charity. 152. On 20 March 2006 she applied for CSSA. Her application was turned down on the sole ground that she did not meet the residence requirement, the Director of Social Welfare refusing to exercise his discretion to waive that requirement in her case. Her appeal to the Social Security Appeal Board against this refusal was launched in June 2006, heard in October that year and dismissed in the following month. 153. In 2008 she commenced the judicial review proceedings by which she challenged the constitutionality of the 7-year residence requirement. That is the challenge which, having failed in the courts below, has now reached this Court. The question of law on which the Appeal Committee granted Madam Kong leave to appeal to this Court is framed by reference to equality as well as the right to social welfare. 154. Cases like this one seem to be seen by some people as contests between long-term locals and Mainland arrivals. But they are not. Nor are they to be seen as contests between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in our society. Cases like this one are about – and only about – what an independent and impartial judiciary will, after receiving and weighing full and rational argument on both sides of the question, adjudge to be the true constitutional position. That, no more and no less, is what cases like this one are about. Guarantees of equality 155. Under our constitutional arrangements, equality is guaranteed by art. 25 of our constitution the Basic Law. This article provides that “[a]ll Hong