The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 3) declared that impugned provisions relating to caste-based discriminatory practices in prison manuals unconstitutional and directed all states and Union Territories to revise the Prison Manual.
The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also ruled that references to habitual offenders in prison manuals were to be declared unconstitutional and in case there is no amended definition of it in the state, the state shall make one. The Supreme Court directed all states to make necessary changes, reported LiveLaw.
The court was hearing the public interest litigation filed by The Wire’s Sukanya Shantha, following her investigative work on the state-sanctioned caste-based discrimination and segregation in Indian prisons.
While reading out the judgement, Chandrachud observed that amongst inmates, caste cannot be used as a basis of segregation and that it will lead to animosity.
The court said on Thursday (October 3) that the judgement has been divided in two parts – (1) criminal laws must not endorse pre-colonial or colonial philosophies and (2) constitution of emancipation of equality and dignity.
“The (prison) manuals directly discriminate by asking higher castes to prepare food and cooking while lower castes for cleaning work. Even if caste is indirectly mentioned, phrases like ‘menial’ and ‘accustomed’ discriminate the groups,” said Chandrachud.
(Left) The Supreme Court Bench that delivered the judgment on discriminatory practices in prison manuals (Right) The Wire’s Sukanya Shantha (dressed in white), who had filed the petition.
“Caste discrimination has already been declared as unconstitutional. But even in 2024, you can see that in prison manuals it has been written how people from specific castes would do particular types of duties. For example, Dalit prisoners will have to do menial works such as cleaning while a Brahmin prisoner will cook. When we did this story, the Rajasthan High Court had taken suo motu cognisance. We realised that if we need to raise this issue at the national level we have to find a way for the court to act on this because otherwise the states will not take it very seriously,” said Shantha, who had filed the PIL, welcoming the judgment.
In July this year, the division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Chandrachud had indicated it would direct the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to appoint a nodal officer to do away with caste-based discriminatory practices in India’s prisons.
The petition also focusses on the discriminatory provisions specifically targeting the most marginalised Denotified Tribes.
This petition is based on one of the articles from a five-part prison series ‘Barred – The Prisons Project’ produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
Back in July, the apex court, reading out a few provisions from state prison manuals, had called the practices “most disturbing”. The court had reserved the petition for final judgement.