The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and 11 states, including Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging that the prison manuals of these states promote caste-based discrimination within jails. The bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, took note of the petitioner’s argument that the jail manuals of these states discriminate in the allocation of work and the lodging of inmates based on their caste. The PIL seeks the repeal of offending provisions in state prison manuals and alleges discrimination against certain de-notified tribes and habitual offenders.
Senior advocate S Muralidhar, representing the petitioner, informed the court that caste-based discrimination exists in barracks, affecting manual labor allocation, and that this discrimination is observed among de-notified tribes and habitual offenders. The court has asked Muralidhar to compile jail manuals from the states and has scheduled the plea for a hearing after four weeks. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs and others have been issued notices, and the bench has requested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist in addressing the issues raised in the PIL filed by Sukanya Shantha. The states involved in the PIL include Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Odisha, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, in addition to Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
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