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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

07/10/24 11:56 AM IST

Supreme Court strike down discriminatory rules across state prison manuals

In News
  • The Supreme Court recently struck down a series of rules in several state prison manuals which “reinforce caste differences” and target members of marginalised communities, especially those dubbed “criminal tribes” in the colonial era for violating the fundamental rights of the prisoners.
State prison manuals
  • Under the Madhya Pradesh Jail Manual, 1987, prisoners from the ‘Mehtar’ caste — a Scheduled Caste community — are specifically assigned latrine cleaning work.
  • They are required to “empty the contents of the small receptacle into large iron drums and replace the receptacles in the latrine after having cleaning them” during routinely conducted ‘latrine parades’.
  • Under the West Bengal Jail Code Rules, 1967, some work is explicitly divided based on caste.
  • Rule 741 dealing with ‘Sickness in cells’ states, among other things, that “Food shall be cooked and carried to the cells by prisoner-cooks of suitable caste, under the superintendence of a jail officer”.
  • The Supreme Court has declared all the provisions and rules in question unconstitutional, and directed states and union territories to revise their prison manuals within three months.
  • It has also directed the Centre to make necessary changes to address caste discrimination in the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the draft Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023 within the same period.
  • The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 allowed the British Raj to declare any community as a “criminal tribe” if they were deemed “addicted to systematic commission of non-bailable offences”.
  • With this declaration, these tribes were forced to settle in designated locations, subjected to constant checks and the threat of arrest without a warrant, and more draconian restrictions “based on a stereotype which considered several marginalized communities as born criminals”.
  • After multiple amendments and iterations, the Act was repealed in 1952 and the former ‘criminal tribes’ became known as ‘denotified tribes’. However, according to the apex court, “The manuals/rules also reinforce stereotypes against denotified tribes” through the classification between habitual and non-habitual criminals.
  • The court uses the example of Madhya Pradesh, where “any member of a denotified tribe may be treated as a habitual criminal, subject to the discretion of the State Government” (Rule 411).
  • It also mentions rules in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala where a person can be designated as a ‘habitual criminal’ if they “are by “habit” a “robber, housebreaker, dacoit, thief or receiver of stolen property”… even if “no previous conviction has been proved, that he is by habit a member of a gang of dacoits, or of thieves or a dealer in stolen property”.
  • The West Bengal Jail Code Rules classify prisoners into ‘B’ or ‘A’ classes based on whether they are ‘habitual’ criminals or not respectively.
Fundamental rights of prisoners
  • RIGHT TO EQUALITY (Article 14): The court held that caste can only be used as a ground for classification “…as long as it is used to grant benefits to the victims of caste discrimination”. It also stated that “Segregating prisoners on the basis of caste would reinforce caste differences or animosity that ought to be prevented at the first place” and that such classification “deprives some of them of equal opportunity to be assessed for their correctional needs, and consequently, opportunity to reform.”
  • RIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION (Article 15): The court held that the manuals both directly and indirectly discriminate against marginalised communities. “By assigning cleaning and sweeping work to the marginalized castes, while allowing the high castes to do cooking, the Manuals directly discriminate” it held. Further, “By assigning specific types of work to marginalized castes based on their supposed “customary” roles, the Manuals perpetuate the stereotype that people from these communities are either incapable of or unfit for more skilled, dignified, or intellectual work” which the court held results in indirect discrimination.
  • ABOLITION OF UNTOUCHABILITY (Article 17): The court reproduced a series of rules and held that they were representative of untouchability being practised in prisons. In Uttar Pradesh, a convict “shall not be called upon to perform duties of a degrading or menial character unless he belongs to a class or community accustomed to perform such duties”. To this, the court held that “The notion that an occupation is considered as “degrading or menial” is an aspect of the caste system and untouchability”.
  • RIGHT TO LIFE WITH DIGNITY (Article 21): The court held that the right to life with dignity under Article 21 “envisages the growth of individual personality” and “provides for the right to overcome caste barriers as a part of the right to life of individuals from marginalized communities”. These rules in prison manuals, it held, “restrict the reformation of prisoners from marginalised communities” and “deprive(s) prisoners from marginalized groups of a sense of dignity and the expectation that they should be treated equally”, violating this right.
  • PROHIBITION OF FORCED LABOUR (Article 23): Referring to how work is distributed such that some communities perform ‘honourable’ work while marginalised communities are relegated to ‘undesirable’ work, the court held “Imposing labour or work, which is considered impure or low-grade, upon the members of marginalized communities amounts to “forced labour” under Article 23”.
Source- Indian Express

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