Supreme Court Gives Last Chance To States/UTs On Compliance With Directions To End Caste Discrimination In Prisons

The Supreme Court on January 27 granted "one last opportunity" to the States and Union Territories to file compliance reports of the orders passed in the Sukanya Shantha judgment. Last year, while observing that discrimination inside prisons based on grounds of caste, gender, and disability is illegal, the Court initiated a suo moto proceedings tilted In Re: Discrimination Inside Prisons in India.

The suo moto case was listed before a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan in which Senior Advocate Dr. S. Muralidhar appeared. He briefly stated that the compliance report was to be filed within 3 months of the order on whether the States and Union Territories had revised their Prison Manuals in accordance with the judgment or not. However, no compliance report has come on record.

The Court has also asked NALSA to file a joint status report in regards to compliance. The Court also admitted an application filed by Dr. Muralidhar on the developments that have taken place in this matter. 

Last October, a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Dr D.Y. Chandrachud comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had pronounced the judgment declaring the provisions under the respective Prison Manuals/Rules of States and Union Territories perpetrating caste-based segregation of prisoners as violative of Articles 14, 15, 17, 21 and 23 of the Indian Constitution.

The Court has passed the following directions:

1. All States and Union Territories are directed to revise their Prison Manuals/Rules within 3 months of this judgment.

2. The Union Government is directed to make necessary changes to address caste-based discrimination in the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2013 within 3 months of this judgment.

3. The "caste" column and any reference to caste in the undertrial and/or convict prisoners register inside the prison shall be deleted.

4. The Court has initiated suo moto proceedings from now onwards as In Re: Discrimination Inside Prisons in India. On the first date of hearing of the suo moto petition, all States and the Union Government shall file a compliance report of the judgment.

5. Reference to "habitual offenders" in the Prison Manual/Model Prison Manual shall be per the definition provided in the respective State legislations. The definition of habitual offender provided in most States' legislations more or less definite them as 'referring to a person who has been sentenced on conviction for at least three occasions to “a substantive term of imprisonment” for any or more of the specified offences'.

This direction is regarding a reference often made to the tribes who were considered criminals under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 but were later denotified under the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952. The Court has said that all other references made to the definition of habitual offenders are declared unconstitutional. Alternatively, it had directed the Union and State Government to make necessary changes in manual/rules in line with the judgment within 3 months.

6. The Police has been directed to follow guidelines issued in The Police is directed to follow the guidelines issued in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014) and Amanatullah Khan v. The Commissioner of Police, Delhi (2024) to ensure that members of Denotified Tribes are not subjected to arbitrary arrest.