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The Madras High Court has sought a response from the State Government and the prison authorities on allegations that persons belonging to the oppressed communities are disproportionately made to clean toilets and do manual scavenging work in the prisons in the State.

The bench of Justice CV Karthikeyan and Justice R Sakthivel directed the legal services authorities to inspect the prisons, examine CCTV footage and conduct an inquiry with prisoners and file reports. The court also asked the Principal District Judges of Madurai, Tirunelveli and Trichy, and the Superintendent of Prisons to inspect prisons and submit a report.

The court sought the response in a plea filed by a social worker and co-founder of “Global Network for Equality (GNE) – India”, a registered social service organisation which aims to reconstruct the lives of children of crime victims in India and to eliminate their social stigma.

The petitioner alleged that the Madurai Central Prison and Palayamkottai Central prisons were housing prisoners much higher than the sanctioned strength and certain blocks and barracks were demarcated exclusively for prisoners belonging to oppressed communities, who were forced to clean toilets.

The petitioner submitted that such practice not only violated the dignity and fundamental rights of the prisoners but was also against the directions of the Supreme Court, which mandated complete elimination of caste-based discrimination in prisons.

The petitioner also submitted that the Supreme Court had already held that caste-based discrimination within prison was unconstitutional and violated the fundamental rights and had struck down the provisions in prison manuals that mandated the segregation and categorisation of prisoners based on caste.

The petitioner alleged that such inhuman practices under official custody gravely undermine the rule of law and human dignity, and such gross violation must be treated with the urgency and seriousness it demands.

The petitioner further submitted that he had sent representations to the authorities requesting them to stop assigning such manual scavenging and toilet cleaning duties to prisoners from oppressed communities and to constitute a Special Board of Visitors including members from the DLSA to conduct an independent and time-bound inquiry into the allegations and to initiate disciplinary and legal action against all prison officials found responsible for enabling and perpetuating such discriminatory practices.

However, the authorities, by way of a reply letter, informed him that no manual scavenging or caste-based discrimination existed in the Tamil Nadu prisons. The petitioner submitted that he received reliable information from the families of prisoners stating that they were forced to do such work, contrary to the statement made by the authorities.

The petitioner thus sought the court's intervention and requested the court to direct the authorities to prevent manual scavenging and toilet cleaning work assigned to prisoners from oppressed communities, constitute a special board of visitors, and to take action against errant prison officials.

Case Title: KR Raja v The State of Tamil Nadu and Others

Case No: WP (MD) 25102 of 2026

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