SC says caste-based discrimination in jail manuals unconstitutional

Apex court termed 'unconstitutional' rules in jail manuals advocating caste-based work

The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside caste-based discriminatory provisions in almost a dozen states' prison manuals, which included segregation of prisoners in separate barracks based on their caste.

It termed “unconstitutional” rules in jail manuals mandating that only upper castes cook food, Scheduled Castes, especially Mehtars clean toilets, and discriminate on the basis of caste against convicts from denotified tribes and ‘habitual offenders’.

"State has a positive obligation to prevent such discriminations," said a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra held on a petition filed by journalist Sukanya Shantha.  It directed states to amend their prison manuals within three months, and submit compliance reports.

 

The CJI said the references to habitual offenders shall be in reference to the habitual offender legislations, and all references to habitual offenders in state prison manuals are declared unconstitutional if these are based on castes. “We have held that assigning cleaning and sweeping work to marginalised and assigning cooking to higher caste is nothing but a violation of Article 15,” he said.

Referring to the Kerala Prison Rules, the plea said they lay down a distinction between a habitual and a re-convicted convict, holding that those who are by habit a robber, house breaker, dacoit or thief should be classified and separated from other convicts.

In her petition, Shantha cited several instances where prison manuals of states reinforce caste-based discrimination and determine the division of labour on the basis of caste hierarchy.

Until 2020, the Rajasthan Prison Rules, 1951, stated that convicts from Mehtar caste would clean toilets and that cooks shall be of “non-habitual class”. “Any Brahmin or sufficiently high caste Hindu prisoner” is “eligible for appointment as a cook”.

Another rule stated that all prisoners “who object on account of high caste to eat food prepared by the existing cooks shall be appointed a cook”. In 2020, the Rajasthan High Court took suo moto cognisance of a report that Shantha had written on the issue, after which the Rajasthan government amended the prison manual.

Other instances of caste-based discrimination include the separation of Thevars, Nadars and Pallars, who are allotted different barracks in the Palayamkottai Central Jail in Tamil Nadu. In one of its orders, the Madras High Court had upheld the justification for this segregation as a means to prevent caste rivalries.

The West Bengal jail manual lays down, Shantha pointed out in her petition, that work in prisons should be designated by caste, such as cooking should be done by dominant castes and sweeping by particular castes. According to rule 694, any interference with the genuine religious practices or caste prejudices of prisoners should be avoided. Rule 793 states that sweepers should be chosen from Mehtar, Hari, Chandal, or any other castes.

The Uttar Pradesh Prison Manual, 1941, amended in 2022, stated that caste prejudices of prisoners should be maintained and cleaning, conservancy and sweeping work should be designated on the basis of castes. It, however, retains the rule on preserving caste prejudices and segregating ‘habitual offenders’.

The Andhra Pradesh Prison Rules mandate that conservancy, or cleaning, duties shall not be extracted from prisoners who, owing to their caste prejudices, are not in the habit of performing such work. The Madhya Pradesh Jail Manual has similar caste-based provisions on conservancy.