In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court(SC)  (October 3) struck down the provisions of the Prison Manual based on castes. Lower castes and marginalized sections assigned cleaning and sweeping tasks of the lowest order. Higher castes given tasks like cooking. SC found these practices in the prison manual discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The ruling laid down the following guidelines

1. To prevent segregation and division of labor solely on the basis of the caste of the prisoners in Prisons.
2. The court has ordered the states and Union Territories to revise their prison manuals to end caste-based discrimination.
3. It has ordered immediate deletion of the caste column from the registers maintained in prisons and a ban on description of de-notified tribes as “habitual offenders”  or “born criminals”

“Article 23(1) provides an enforceable fundamental right against social and economic exploitation. It aims to prohibit human trafficking, “begar”, and “other similar forms of forced labour”. Like Articles 15(2) and 17, it is enforceable against the state and non-state actors the court said.

LEARNING FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS

Fundamental Rights

Part 3 of the Indian constitution. It is also called the Magna Carta of India.