NCRB data collection in prisons can continue, SC clarifies caste bias issue | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said the order to remove the ‘caste’ column, apart from any caste references in criminal cases or records of convicts in jails, will not prevent data collection by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to obstruct. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra made the clarification.
In a landmark judgment on October 3, the Supreme Court banned caste discrimination, such as the division of manual labor, the segregation of barracks and prejudice against prisoners from non-declared tribes and habitual offenders, by declaring the October 10 prison manual rules as “unconstitutional” . states for promoting such prejudices.
“The ‘caste’ column and all references to caste in the registers of prisoners under judicial custody and/or convicts in the prisons shall be deleted,” said one of the directions in the judgment.
Senior advocate S. Muralidhar, appearing for the petitioner on whose plea the judgment was pronounced, said a prayer in the application was intended not to hamper the exercise of NCRB data collection by directing removal of caste references from the records.
“That may be necessary,” Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said.
Noting that the NCRB should have moved the Supreme Court for such a clarification, Bhati said she had received instructions from the Home Ministry for its issuance by the court.
“…it is clarified that direction (iv) will not hamper the collection of data by the NCRB,” the bench said.
In its October 3 ruling, the Supreme Court noted that the “right to live with dignity” extended “even to prisoners.”
The Center and states were accordingly directed to amend their jail manuals and laws within three months and file compliance reports in the top court.
The Supreme Court had to deal with certain discriminatory provisions in the prison manuals of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh when it set them aside.
“Rules that discriminate against individual prisoners on the basis of their caste, specifically or indirectly by reference to proxies of caste identity, violate Article 14 by virtue of invalidating classification and undermining substantive equality,” the judgment held.
The judgment was delivered on a PIL by journalist Sukanya Shantha, who had written about the prevalence of caste discrimination in prisons.