This issue was raised by journalist Sukanya Shanta. He filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in December 2023.
The Supreme Court has asked to remove the rules promoting caste discrimination from the prison manual. The Supreme Court has directed several states not to allocate work in prisons on the basis of caste.
A petition was filed in the Supreme Court regarding distribution of work in prisons on the basis of caste. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra said in an order on Thursday that these matters cannot be allowed.
The Supreme Court in the order also said that it is wrong to clean the sewage tank of prisoners belonging to a particular caste. Police should take action in this matter.
The Supreme Court has ordered the state governments to amend the rules increasing caste discrimination in the prison manual within 3 months.
The PIL said – Discrimination against inmates in 17 state prisons In fact, this matter was raised by journalist Sukanya Shanta. He filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in December 2023, arguing that caste-based discrimination was taking place against inmates lodged in about 17 state jails across the country.
The first hearing in this regard was held in January 2024. The court has sent notices to 17 states seeking their response. Within six months, only Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal filed their reply in the court.
Petitioner Sukanya Shanta writes on issues related to human rights law and social justice. With his news, he raised the issue of caste discrimination in prison. A research report was also prepared on this issue in 2020. The report mentions that in 17 states in India, prisoners are assigned work on the basis of their caste. This report by Sukanya was published on 'The Wire'.
The petitioner in his report gave an example of 3 major state…
- Rajasthan: If the prisoners of Rajasthan are barbers, they get the job of cutting hair and beards; Also, the Brahmin prisoner gets the job of cooking. The inmates of Valmiki society clean up.
- Kerala: A distinction is made in Kerala between a habitual offender and a repeat offender. Habitual bandits or thieves were divided into various categories. Separated from the rest.
- Uttar Pradesh: The Uttar Pradesh Jail Manual, 1941 provides for maintaining caste prejudices of prisoners and subjecting them to cleaning, guarding and scavenging on the basis of caste.
An application was filed in this matter in December 2023. The Supreme Court completed the hearing in 10 months. During the last hearing on July 10, the court also read some provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Jail Rules in the court.
After this the Uttar Pradesh government argued that there is no caste discrimination in our jails, but Chief Justice Chandrachud read the jail rules and reprimanded the Uttar Pradesh government.
Rule 158 mentions the duty (liability) of manual scavenging. What is this duty (responsibility) of manual scavenging? Why is the caste of scavengers written in it? What does that mean?
– DY Chandrachud, CJI
A bench headed by the CJI then asked the West Bengal lawyers to read the jail rules as well. There too the jail rules mentioned who should be the sweeper. After reading this, the bench asked if you don't see any problem with this. The Supreme Court also said that these prison rules are very painful.
Now know the central government's stand
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice in February, saying that discrimination is illegal The central government had issued a notification to states and union territories in February this year. It said that the ministry has noticed that prison manuals of some states segregate prisoners on the basis of caste and religion and assign them to work on equal basis. There is discrimination based on caste, religion, caste, place of birth. This is illegal under the Constitution of India.
It said that all States and Union Territories should ensure that their State Prison Rules do not contain any discriminatory provisions.
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When the lawyer said Ya…Ya…Ya…CJI flared up: Said- Say yes, this is a court, not a coffee shop; Hearing the reprimand, the lawyer started speaking Marathi
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday took umbrage after a lawyer said 'ya..ya..' in English during a hearing. He scolded the lawyer and said – This is not a coffee shop. What is this 'ya..ya..' I am very allergic to this. This cannot be allowed. You say YES. …
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
