The J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha today ordered amendment of the prison manual 2022 to check discrimination, classification and segregation of jail inmates on the basis of caste.
Under the powers conferred by section 59 of the Prisons Act, 1894 the LG prohibited caste-based discrimination in the Prisons.
He ordered “It shall be strictly ensured that there is no discrimination/classification/segregation of prisoners on the basis of their caste”.
“It shall be strictly ensured that there is no discrimination of prisoners in allotment of any duty/work in prisons on the basis of their caste”.
“The provision of the prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation Act 2013 shall have a binding effect even in prisons and correctional institutions. Manual scavenging of hazardous cleaning of a sewer or septic tank inside a prison shall not be permitted”, the LG ordered through a notification issued by the Home department.
The LG has also revised the definition of habitual offenders in the manual following the court’s order to separate habitual offenders from casual prisoners. The new definition goes, “Habitual offender means a person who during any continuous period of five years, has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment on more than two occasions on account of any one or more of the offences committed on different occasions and not constituting parts of same transaction, such sentence not having been reversed in appeal or review.”
It is worth mentioning that the amendment has come in light of the October 3, 2024, judgement of the Supreme Court regarding caste-based discrimination of prisoners.