Supreme Court To Hear Plea Seeking Clarification On Direction To Delete Caste Column In Prison Registers

Journalist Sukanya Shanta, in whose petition the Supreme Court issued directions to end caste-based segregation and division of work in prisons, has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking clarification with respect to the direction to delete caste columns in the prison registers.

Senior Advocate Dr.S Muralidhar, for the applicant, mentioned the application before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, saying that this direction was creating difficulties. CJI agreed to list the matter tomorrow.

It was pointed out by the applicant that the data in the prison registers, which are collated by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), is the only data available on the demographics of prisoners. Without such data, it will be difficult to ascertain how the prison system disproportionately affects certain communities.  

The applicant stated that in her writ petition against caste discrimination in prisons, she had not sought for a direction to stop the collection of caste data in prison registers.

In the judgment delivered by a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on October 3, various directions were issued to end caste discrimination in prisons. The Court declared as invalid the provisions of prison manuals of several states, which prescribed allotment of work as per caste of the prisoner. One of the directions was - "The “caste” column and any references to caste in undertrial and/or convicts' prisoners' registers inside the prisons shall be deleted."