SC bans caste-based discrimination in prisons

In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday banned caste-based discrimination like division of manual labour, segregation of barracks and bias against prisoners of de-notified tribes and habitual offenders by holding as "unconstitutional" the jail manual rules of 10 states for fostering such biases.

Observing that "right to live with dignity extends even to the incarcerated", a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, "Criminal laws of the colonial era continue to impact the postcolonial world."

It asked the Centre and the 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.

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...," it 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 are violative of 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.