Is there discrimination on the basis of caste in jails? Supreme Court will tell everything in its decision tomorrow

New Delhi: The prison rules of some states of the country promote discrimination on the basis of caste. The Supreme Court will give its verdict on the petition related to this allegation on Thursday. According to the cause list of October 3 uploaded on the Supreme Court website, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra will give its verdict on this petition. In January this year, the Supreme Court had directed the Center, Uttar Pradesh and West Response on the petition was sought from 11 states including Bengal. The court took note of the contention of the petitioner’s counsel that the prison manuals of these states discriminate in the allocation of work inside the prisons and the place of keeping prisoners is decided on the basis of their caste.

What is in the petition?

The plea cited Kerala jail rules and said they differentiate between habitual offenders and re-convicted offenders and say that people who are habitual robbers, burglars, dacoits or thieves should be kept in different categories. Be divided and kept separate from other convicts.

West Bengal Jail Code on target

It claimed that the West Bengal Jail Code states that work in jail should be done on the basis of caste, such as cooking work will be done by dominant castes and cleaning work will be done by people from particular castes. The Supreme Court, while issuing notice to the Union Home Ministry and others, had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist in dealing with the issues raised in the petition filed by Sukanya Shanta, a native of Kalyan, Maharashtra.

‘Caste discrimination in state prisons’

The bench took note of the submissions of the counsel for the petitioner that despite the amendments made in the State Prison Manual as per the Model Prison Manual prepared by the Union Home Ministry, caste discrimination is being practiced in the prisons of the States.