The difference between Section / Rule / Article / Act has been listed below: -
Section
A section refers to a distinct portion or provision of a legal code or set of laws, often establishing a particular legal requirement. For example- Section 5 of the Indian Contract Act.
Article
When any fundamentally critical document is framed or drafted which might be a grundnorm (a fundamental norm to support all other legal norms according to Kelsian pure theory of law) of that system at political, national or international level, then for the most part, it is separated from the customary municipal laws by referring to its provisos as articles rather than sections.
For example - United Nations Charter,International Conventions, Constitution of a country, and so on, from where different laws or rules originate. Otherwise, municipal laws normally contain sections.
Rule
A Rule is a subsidiary enactment that helps in governing law. They are secondary in nature, meaning thereby that they don’t have an independent existence of their own.They are made to make the parent Act function. The rules provide for the details that have not been provided for in the Act, however, Rules by no means can go beyond
the power conferred by the ACT, or extend the same.
Act
An Act is a law that is passed by the legislature. It is also known as a statute. However,most laws are not complete code in themselves, i.e. certain provisions as to their application or enforcement, etc. are deliberately left out by the legislature due to which rules come into the picture. For example- Companies Act 2013 is an Act. It has several rules governing its operations such as Companies (Incorporation) Rules 2014.
Sections comes under the Act whereas it makes us enable us to understand underwhich act it comes from. Likewise, articles and rules are also different but makes it easy to know under which article we have to make an application.
An act is a bill which has passed through the various legislative steps required for it and which has become law. So, simply put, an act is the formally codiedresult of deliberation by a legislative body.
An article is a separate and distinct part of a written instrument, such as a contract, statute, or constitution, that is often divided into sections. A written instrument, containing a series of rules and stipulations that are each designated as an article.
A section is the distinct and numbered subdivisions in legal codes, statutes, and textbooks.The basic difference between an act, an article and a section would thus be that one is the sub-division of the other.
It goes as Act (the biggest) which has articles that are divided into sections. In general, terms, when a Bill is proposed to be enacted, it shall be presented before the respected legislatures (law making bodies) for approval. After it is approved, the bill is presented before the president. The bill, with the consent of the president, shall come into force as an Act, a Law, or a Statute.
An Article or a section which are numbered are meant to indicate or reflect a specific provision of an Act or a Law