Caste-based discrimination in jails: Supreme Court to deliver verdict on Oct 3

The apex court had in January this year sought responses from the Centre and 11 states, including Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, on the plea.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to pronounce on Thursday its judgment on a plea alleging that the prison manuals in states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, encouraged caste-based discrimination among jail inmates.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra would render the judgment on October 3 on a petition filed by Sukanya Shantha, claiming the jail manuals of 11 states discriminated in allocation of work inside their prisons and caste determined the places where inmates were lodged. 

Her counsel said such caste based discrimination is there from the time one steps into the prison.

The apex court was informed that certain de-notified tribes and habitual offenders are treated differently and discriminated against.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said he has not heard of discrimination on caste, as segregation was usually based on undertrial prisoners and the convicts.

The bench said that the petitioner stated that caste-based discrimination is there in barracks to the manual labour.

The plea sought repeal of offending provisions in state prison manuals. 

Besides Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the other states where alleged discrimination took place were Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra.