PIL Filed In MP High Court Against Recording Of Accused's Caste Name In FIRs, Claims 'Institutional Discrimination'

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has admitted a PIL highlighting the issue of mentioning the caste name of the accused in FIR and various other proceedings initiated by the State. The bench of Justice Pranay Verma directed; "Heard on the question of admission. Issue notice to the respondents on payment of process fee by RAD mode within a period of seven working days failing which the petition shall stand dismissed automatically without further reference to the Bench. The notices be made returnable within eight weeks". The petitioner claims to have undertaken legal research into police records, FIRs and other official communications, allegedly revealing a pattern of systematic targeting of the Sondhiya Rajput Community/Caste.It was stated that the State, in a 'fiendish manner', has termed the communities as 'ruffians' in various press releases and gave wide publicity to the same, which endangered and dis-reputed the community. The petition relied on the Apex Court guidelines, wherein it was held that mentioning the caste name in the cause title or in various other proceedings does not serve any useful purpose.The petition represented data from a temporal clustering of five major FIRs in a span of six months, with over 80% involving the Sondhiya Rajput community, thereby alleging systematic enforcement bias. The petition further stated that this exercise of prosecutorial discretion results in the selective targeting or enhanced scrutiny of one case, in the absence of any legitimate, objective criteria, leading to an abuse of power and violating the test of equal protection and non-arbitrariness enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution. Additionally, it was stated that the pattern of template-based FIR drafting, recurrence across different stations and officers and centrally issued caste-focused press communications suggests institutional discrimination over individual discrimination. Therefore, the petition seeks directions to the State to desist from releasing such discriminatory press releases. Additionally, it seeks directions against the Senior Officers to implement Anti-Discrimination Protocols, such as training police officers on constitutional obligations and to formulate necessary SOPs of guidelines to prevent such caste based references in the FIR. Case Title: Nepal SIngh v State of Madhya Pradesh [WP 44397 of 2025]For Petitioner: Advocates Shiv Narayan, Bhupendra Singh Sisodiya and Vaibhav BhargavFor State: Government Advocate Bhuwan DeshmukhClick here to read/download the Order

PIL Filed In MP High Court Against Recording Of Accused's Caste Name In FIRs, Claims 'Institutional Discrimination'

Jayanti Pahwa

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