Context:

The Union Home Ministry (MHA) has amended the prison manual rules to check discrimination and classification of inmates in jails based on their caste.

More on the news: 

• The Union Home Ministry has amended the 'Model Prison Manual, 2016' and the 'Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023' to address caste-based prison discrimination.
• These amendments are in response to the Supreme Court's October 2024 (Sukanya Shantha v. Union of India (2024)) order regarding caste-based discrimination of prisoners.
• The amendments highlight the government’s commitment to reforming the prison system and eliminating caste-based and other forms of discrimination.

Key Amendments

No caste-based discrimination: The revised rules mandate that prison authorities ensure no discrimination or segregation of prisoners based on caste.

• Prison authorities must ensure that a prisoner’s caste does not influence the assignment of duties or work within prisons.

Prohibition of Caste-Based Discrimination: A new section, Section 55(A), has been added to the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, titled 'Prohibition of caste-based discrimination in Prisons and Correctional Institutions.'

• This section specifically bans caste-based discrimination in all prison and correction facilities.

Manual Scavengers prohibited: The Home Ministry stated that the provisions of 'The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013' will apply in prisons, ensuring that manual scavenging or hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks inside prison will not be permitted.

Supreme Court Order on Habitual Offenders:

• The Supreme Court has directed that prison manuals and model prison manuals must align with the Habitual Offenders legislation of respective states, subject to constitutional challenges.
• If a state does not have this legislation, both the Union and State governments must make necessary changes to their rules within three months.

Uniform Definition of Habitual Offender

The definition of 'Habitual Offender' has been updated by the MHA in the Model Prison Manual, 2016, and the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023, after reviewing state laws.

According to the new definition: “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 the same transaction, such sentence not having been reversed in appeal or review.”

• “Provided that in computing the continuous period of five years referred to above, any period spent in jail either under sentence of imprisonment or under detention shall not be taken into account.”