The Supreme Court yesterday (July 30) passed an order directing the States and Union Territories to set up Board of Visitors (BoVs) in each district, to be headed by the Principal District Judge of that district, as per the Model Prison Manual, 2026.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a suo moto case regarding discrimination based on caste, gender, disability, etc., in prisons, arising from the landmark Sukanya Shantha judgment. Senior Advocate Dr S Muralidhar was appointed as amicus to continue monitoring certain directions, including that the caste column mentioned in prison details should be deleted.

Yesterday, Muralidhar submitted that a status report pointing out that none of the States and UTs has constituted BoVs, which, as per Clause 29.01 of the Model Prison Manual, 2016, is required to be formed in each district and sub-divisional prison as a principal mechanism of external prison oversight.

He pointed out that in the Shantha judgment, the Supreme Court in paragraph 254(viii) had issued directions to the District Legal Service Authority along with the BoVs to jointly conduct regular inspections.

Paragraph 254(viii) says: "(viii) The DLSAs and the Board of Visitors formed under the Model Prison Manual 2016 shall jointly conduct regular inspections to identify whether caste-based discrimination or similar discriminatory practices, as highlighted in this judgment, are still taking place inside prisons. The DLSAs and the Board of Visitors shall submit a joint report of their inspection to the SLSAs, which shall compile a common report and forward it to NALSA, which shall in turn file a joint status report before this Court in the abovementioned suo motu writ petition."

In view of this status report, the bench passed further orders directing States and UTs to establish BoVs in each district.

It ordered:

"The report talks about compliance of various directions issued by this Court in the judgment referred to above, including the clarificatory order dated 7 November 2024. We have looked into the entire report threadbare. One copy has also been provided to all learned counsels. However, in the course of today's hearing, the learned amicus laid much stress on paragraph 25 of his status report. It is titled as 'information awaited '; it reads thus:

"25. The AC is awaiting further written responses from several States / UTs in respect of: a. The method of collection and transmission of caste-data to NCRB; b. Deletion of caste columns in all the registers and forms in prisons; c. Outsourcing of cleaning work; d. Status of compliance with the guidelines in the judgments in Arnesh Kumar and Amanatullah Khan ; e. Notifications constituting BoVs district-wise; f. Status of new Acts / Rules / Manuals that are proposed by several States / UTs; g. Status of amendments to offending provisions in the Acts / Rules / Manuals".

As regards the information which the learned amicus seeks, we requested Ms Aishwarya Bhati, learned ASG, to look into the same and take up the matter with all States and UTs and try to gather the necessary information at the earliest.

The learned amicus made us understand that the States of Assam, MP, Meghalaya and Chandigarh have evolved the methodology for the collection of caste data. According to him, the same may be adopted by other States.

The learned amicus brought something very important: according to them, none of the States and UTs has constituted a Board of Visitors, district-wise. According to him, it is very important and necessary for the State to constitute BoV in each of the districts where there are sub jails, and this has to be done under Model 29.01 r/w 29.03 and the State Manual.

We direct all State Governments and UTs to ensure that BoVs are constituted and headed by the Principal District Judge of that district. We request Ms Bhati to see that States and UTs are conveyed the directions of this Court.

We also directed all States/UTs to provide to us the status of amendment to the offending provisions as pointed out by the learned amicus as stated in the report. A copy each should be provided to the Principal Secretary(Home)/LG(UTs) at the earliest. Post this matter for further hearing after five weeks on September 10. The necessary report shall be forwarded by States/UTs one week before the one week of hearing. Let it be sent by September 3, 2026."

Case Details: IN RE: DISCRIMINATION INSIDE PRISONS IN INDIA Vs|SMW(C) No. 10/2024 Diary No. 48023 / 2024