The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
On SC Judgment
CPI(M) welcomes the judgment of the Supreme Court which directs the Central and state governments to take steps to end the practices of caste discrimination in prisons/jails. 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.
Pointing out the presence of provisions which subject the prisoners to work assignments, housing arrangements and food preparations based on caste bias and notions of untouchability, it directed the Central and state governments to remove all of them from the prison manuals.
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.