NEW DELHI: Adhering to the Supreme Court verdict, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has brought in changes in the jail manual to bar caste-based discrimination among inmates within prisons across the country.The MHA has also redefined the term ‘Habitual Offender’ in accordance with the principles of the Constitution, to prohibit discrimination and the segregation of prisoners on the basis of caste. In a communication issued to the Chief Secretaries of all States and UTs, the MHA recalled the Supreme Court’s October 3, 2024 verdict and in compliance with the directions of the judgment the ministry has made the changes/additions in the “Model Prison Manual, 2016” and the “Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023”.To address the issue of any caste-based discrimination of prisoners in the prisons, some additions were made in Chapter V titled ‘Custodial Management’ of the Model Prison Manual, 2016 Page No. 62, with a new heading ‘Prohibition of caste-based discrimination in Prisons and Correctional Institutions’.In the circular, the MHA further said, “It shall be strictly ensured that there is no discrimination/ classification/segregation of prisoners on the basis of their caste and it shall be strictly ensured that there is no discrimination of prisoners in allotment of any duty/work in prisons based on their caste.”It went on to add that the provisions of ‘The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013’ shall have a binding effect even in Prisons and Correctional Institutions. Manual scavenging or hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank inside a prison shall not be permitted, it added.In a landmark verdict on October last year, a Division Bench of then Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra directed the Union Government and states to revise their prison manuals and rules to address caste-based discrimination in prisons and ensure that there should not be any caste discrimination in prisons across India. It had also directed that all current provisions in the jail manual perpetuating such discrimination must be removed.
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