THE Supreme Court on Thursdaysetasidecaste-based discriminatory provisions of prison manuals of around 11 States while deprecating the practiceofdistributionofwork and segregation of prisoners in separate wards on basis of their castes. “State has a positive obligation to prevent such discriminations,” a bench comprising Chief JusticeDYChandrachud and Justices JBPardiwala and Manoj Misra held while issuinga slewofdirections toabolishcaste-baseddiscrimination inside jails. It also directed the States to amend their prison manualswithinthreemonths. “All such provisions are held to be unconstitutional. All the States are directed to make changes (in prison manuals) in accordance with the judgement...

 

“The references to habitual offenders shall be in reference to the habitual offender legislations and all such references of habitual offenders in State prison manuals are declared as unconstitutional if they are based on castes,” the CJI said whilepronouncing the verdict in a packed courtroom. The top court also took suo motu (on its own) cognisance oftheinstancesofcaste-based discrimination inside prisons and directed the apex court registry to list it with a title of ‘In re: Discrimination Inside Prisons” after three months.

 

It asked States to submit compliancereport of the judgement. At the outset,theCJI said the PIL challenged theprovisions of Stateprisonmanuals onthe grounds of them being discriminatory.TheCJI saidthere aredivisionsofmanuallabour, barracks inside jails in some States on the basis of identity of the prisoners.