New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict that banned caste-based discriminatory practices in jails, and demanded that states take steps to implement it.
In a statement, the CPI (M) said, "The judgment delivered by the three-judge bench headed by CJI is an important intervention by the judiciary in the much-needed battle against the obnoxious caste system. The court declared 'the right to live with dignity extends to even the incarcerated' and the provisions which allowed caste bias and segregation in various prison manuals and laws as unconstitutional." "The CPI(M) demands that all the governments initiate the measures suggested by the court within the stipulated time of three months to eliminate caste-based discrimination in prison life," it said.
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday banned caste-based discrimination like division of manual labour, segregation of barracks and bias against prisoners of de-notified tribes and habitual offenders by holding as "unconstitutional" the jail manual rules of 10 states for fostering such biases.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the Centre and the states to amend their prison manuals and laws within three months, and file compliance reports before it.
It dealt with certain discriminatory provisions of jail manuals of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Maharashtra Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh and set them aside. PTI AO AO SKY SKY
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