Notice to Centre and 11 States on Plea Alleging Caste Discrimination in Prisons
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 3rd Jan. The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and 11 states, including Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) claiming that the prison manuals of these states promote caste-based discrimination within jails.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra acknowledged the submissions made by senior advocate S Muralidhar, who argued that the jail manuals of these 11 states discriminate in the allocation of work within prisons and that an inmate’s caste determines their place of lodging.
The senior lawyer stated that certain de-notified tribes and habitual offenders are treated differently and face discrimination.
The court requested Muralidhar to compile the jail manuals from the states and scheduled a hearing for the plea in four weeks.
The bench issued notices to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and others, and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the court in addressing the concerns raised in the PIL filed by Sukanya Shantha, a resident of Kalyan in Maharashtra.
“The petitioner states that caste-based discrimination is there in barracks to the manual labour which is allotted and such discrimination among de-notified tribes and habitual offenders. The plea seeks repeal of offending provisions in state prison manuals. Issue notice to the Union and the state government…,” the court ordered.
“I have not heard of discrimination on caste… the segregation is usually based on undertrial prisoners and the convicts,” the solicitor general said.
Besides Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the other states are Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra.
