NEW DELHI: Holding that segregation of prisoners in barracks on the basis of caste and allocation of work among them based on their their place in caste hierarchy was discriminatory and amounted to forced labour, Supreme Court on Thursday ordered an end to all such practices and granted three months to states and Union Territories to change their jail manuals.
Under the present system, menial jobs of cleaning and sweeping are given to prisoners from marginalised castes, while the upper castes are assigned work like cooking.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra expressed concern that caste discrimination has continued despite the Constitution eliminating its legality on Jan 26, 1950. It passed a slew of directions to get rid of caste-based discrimination in jail premises and decided to register a case suo motu to monitor implementation of its order.
It said segregating prisoners on the basis of caste would reinforce caste differences or animosity that ought to be prevented in the first place and rejected the plea that separating inmates on the basis of caste would be required to maintain discipline inside prisons. “Such a philosophy has no place under the Indian Constitution. Even if there is rivalry between individuals of two groups, it does not require segregating the groups permanently. Discipline cannot be secured at the altar of violation of fundamental rights and correctional needs of inmates. Prison authorities ought to be able to tackle perceived threats to discipline by means that are not rights-effacing and inherently discriminatory,” said SC.
It said rules that discriminate among prisoners on the basis of their caste specifically or indirectly by referring to proxies of caste identity is violative of Article 14 and such provisions discriminate against marginalised castes and to the advantage of certain castes. It said jail manuals directly discriminate by assigning cleaning and sweeping work to marginalised castes, while allowing upper castes to do cooking.
“The notion that an occupation is considered degrading or menial is an aspect of the caste system and untouchability. The caste system rigidly assigns certain tasks to specific communities based on birth, with the lowest castes, being relegated to tasks considered unclean, such as manual scavenging, cleaning and other forms of physical labour. Refusal to check caste practices or prejudices amounts to cementing of such practices,” the bench said.