New Delhi: In response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) claiming that the prison manuals of 11 states, including West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, promote caste-based discrimination in prisons, the Supreme Court today requested comments from the federal government and these states.
A bench made up of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, and senior counsel S Muralidhar noted the arguments made by the senior advocate that these 11 states’ jail manuals discriminate in the distribution of labor inside their jails and that caste dictates where prisoners are housed.
According to the senior attorney, certain de-notified tribes and repeat offenders face discrimination and unequal treatment.
The court set a four-week deadline for the plea hearing and ordered Muralidhar to gather state prison manuals.
The bench urged Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to help the court address the problems mentioned in the PIL filed by Sukanya Shantha, a resident of Kalyan, Maharashtra, and issued summons to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and others.
“The petitioner claims that there is caste-based discrimination among de-notified tribes and repeat criminals, as well as prejudice in barracks against the hard labor that is assigned to them. The request asks for the state prison manuals’ offending sections to be repealed. Give notification to the state government and the Union,” the judge said.
“I have not heard of discrimination on caste… the segregation is usually based on undertrial prisoners and the convicts,” stated the attorney general.
The remaining states include Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, in addition to Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
