MHA amends prison rules to address caste-based discrimination 

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has amended the model prison manual to address the issue of “any caste-based discrimination of the inmates” in compliance with a Supreme Court verdict.

In October last year, a Division Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra directed the Union Government and states to revise their prison manuals and rules to address caste-based discrimination in prisons.

According to the new addition in the manual, the prison authorities will have to strictly ensure that there is no discrimination, classification, or segregation of prisoners on the basis of their caste.

"It shall be strictly ensured that there is no discrimination of prisoners in allotment of any duty or work in prisons on the basis of their caste," it said.

The Ministry noted that the provisions of 'The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013' shall have a binding effect even in Prisons and Correctional Institutions.

"Manual scavenging or hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank inside a prison shall not be permitted," it said.

Taking note of the fact that not all States or UTs have enacted the Habitual Offenders Act in their jurisdictions and after examining the definition of the habitual offenders in the available Habitual Offenders Acts of various states, the MHA has decided to replace the existing definition of 'Habitual Offender' in the Model Prison Manual, 2016, and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023.

From now onwards, a habitual offender would mean a person who during any continuous period of five years has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment on more than two occasions on account of any one or more of the offences committed on different occasions and not constituting parts of same transaction, such sentence not having been reversed in appeal or review.