On 3rd October 2024, the Supreme Court of India in Sukanya Shantha v. Union of India & Ors. addressed the issue of Caste-based discrimination in the Indian prisons. India has faced caste-based discrimination for centuries, and the Constitution of India explicitly prohibits any form of discrimination against individuals. However, it is disheartening to observe that prisons—places of rehabilitation and reform within the Criminal Justice System—failed to uphold these constitutional principles.  The Supreme Court in its decision held that caste-based discrimination of prisoners, segregation of their work based on caste hierarchy, and the classification of inmates from de-notified tribes as habitual offenders within the walls of prisons across India are oppressive to fundamental human dignity and personal liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. 

The Petitioner, Sukanya Shantha, is a journalist, who published an article on 10^th December 2020 titled as “From Segregation to Labor, Manu’s Caste Law Governs the Indian Prison System” which highlighted caste-based discrimination in the prisons of India. The Advocates appearing for the Petitioner argued that various State Prison Manuals sanction blatantly unconstitutional practices that are violative of Part III of the Indian Constitution. It was also highlighted how caste-based discrimination persisted in the prisons with respect to the division of manual labor, the segregation of barracks, and provisions that discriminate against prisoners belonging to de-notified tribes and “habitual offenders.”

According to the Committee on Prison Discipline 1838, to force a man of  ‘higher caste’ to work at any trade would ‘disgrace him’ and his family, and would be viewed as cruelty. It was expected of convicted people from lower caste communities to carry on with their customary occupations while incarcerated. Within the prison, there was a replication of the caste hierarchy that was practiced outside. Through this and several other prison manuals to date, including the Model Prison Manual 2016 and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act 2023, it is observed that caste has been used as a ground for differentiating prisoners which is violative of  Article 14 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees equality before law to all people in India at large. Such prison manuals re-affirm colonial caste-based discrimination by treating people of de-notified and wandering tribes as “born criminals” and habitual offenders. Moreover, terms and concepts used in the Prison Manuals such as “prison-cooks of suitable caste”, “superior mode of living”, and communities accustomed to performing menial tasks”, highlighted untouchability, forced labor, discrimination and exploitation of individuals which is ultra vires the fundamental rights enshrined under Article 14, 15, 17, 21, and 23 of the Indian Constitution.

The Supreme Court mandated the deletion of the caste column and any references to caste from the records of undertrials and convicts kept in prisons. The court ruled that any informal mentions of caste in the prison manual, lacking statutory support, are unconstitutional. This Court herein also rejected the stance taken by the Madras High Court in the case of C. Arul v. The Secretary to Government, wherein the Court had accepted the State Government’s justification for housing inmates of different castes in separate blocks to prevent community conflicts prevalent in certain regions. However, the Supreme Court emphasized that it is the prison administration’s duty to maintain order without resorting to extreme measures that enforce caste segregation. This reasoning mirrors the arguments historically used in the United States to defend race-based segregation under the guise of “separate but equal.”

In addition to issuing numerous directives to States and Union Territories to amend their jail manuals in order to eradicate caste-based discrimination in prisons, the court also took suo motu cognizance of any discrimination occurring in prisons on the basis of caste, gender, disability, or any other ground and the same to be in listed as “In Re: Discrimination Inside Prisons in India”. The Supreme Court of India through its landmark judgment has urged the need to reflect and do away with the institutional practices that discriminate against citizens from marginalized communities. It eloquently notes that bounds of castes are made of steel, sometimes invisible but always inextricable. However, they are not so strong that they can never be broken with the power of Constitution.