77 years after Independence, SC bans caste-based discrimination in prisons

More than seven decades after Independence, the Supreme Court has in a landmark verdict banned caste-based discrimination in the country’s prisons. Practices such as the division of manual labour based on the caste of an inmate; and segregation of barracks and bias against prisoners of de-notified tribes and habitual offenders have been banned by the top court. The SC also quashed the “unconstitutional” jail manual rules of 10 states for fostering such biases.

Inmates also have right to dignity

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Pre-constitutional era’s authoritarian regimes saw prisons as tools of domination. This court, focusing on the changed legal framework, has recognised that even prisoners are entitled to the right to dignity. supreme court

Observing that “right to live with dignity extends even to the incarcerated”, a Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said: “Criminal laws of the colonial era continue to impact the postcolonial world.”

It asked the Centre and states to amend their prison manuals and laws within three months, and file compliance reports before it. It dealt with certain discriminatory provisions of jail manuals of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh; and set them aside.

Referring to right against untouchability, it said Article 17 enunciates that everyone is born equal. “There cannot be any stigma attached to the existence, touch or presence of any person. By way of Article 17, our Constitution strengthens the equality of status of every citizen,” the SC said.

Referring to an instance, it said convicts from communities lower in the caste hierarchy were expected to continue with their customary occupations in jail and the caste hierarchy outside the prison was replicated within the prison.

“Rules that discriminate among individual prisoners on the basis of their caste specifically or indirectly by referring to proxies of caste identity violate Article 14 on account of invalid classification and subversion of substantive equality,” it held.

For instance, rules assigning sweeping work which stipulate that “sweepers shall be chosen from the Mehtar or Hari caste”, also is part of discrimination, it said.

Penning the 148-page judgment on a PIL of journalist Sukanya Shantha who had written an article on prevalent caste-based discriminations on prisons, the CJI also ordered the deletion of the ‘caste’ column and any references to the caste of jailed undertrials or convicted prisoners’ registers inside the prisons. It also ordered the Centre to make necessary changes according to the judgment to address caste-based discrimination in the Model Prison Manual, 2016, and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, within three months.

“References to ‘habitual offenders’ in the prison manuals/Model Prison Manual shall be in accordance with the definition provided in habitual offender legislation enacted by respective state legislatures, subject to any constitutional challenge against such legislation in future. All other references or definitions of ‘habitual offenders’ in the impugned prison manuals/rules are declared unconstitutional,” it held.