SC order gives an opportunity to TN govt to do away with a regressive, discriminatory practice in prisons

CHENNAI: Will the State Prison Department do away with the age-old practice of segregating prisoners on caste lines? This unconstitutional practice prevails in the Central Prison in Palayamkottai and a few other central prisons in south Tamil Nadu under the guise of preventing communal clashes among the inmates behind the high walls.

This question resurfaced following the Supreme Court’s Thursday order, striking down the unconstitutional rules in the Prison Manual that assigned jobs based on the caste of inmates during their incarceration.

Hearing a public interest litigation filed by a journalist, the apex court directed the State governments to bring amendments to discriminatory rules. There are 447 (restricting convicts belonging to a member of a wandering or criminal tribe from extramural employment) and 472 (empowering jail authorities to engage convicts in manual scavenging) of the TN Prison Manual.

Sources in the prison department said segregating the prisoners on caste lines has been normalised in jails in the southern district, particularly in Palayamkottai, for nearly two decades now. It was the outcome of brutal attacks among the prisoners, who split and grouped based on their caste, resulting in life-threatening injuries.

Activist and advocate KR Raja recalled his days as a psychiatric counselor for the inmates in Palayamkottai for three years from 2013 and said that Tirunelveli and neighbouring districts were communally sensitive.

“There were caste clashes inside the prisons. So, the police and prison department brought this system to keep undertrials from Thevar, Dalit, and Nadar in different blocks and never allow them to mingle,” he said.

Recalling his petition to State Law Minister S Regupathy on March 6 this year based on a media report that the prisoners were segregated based on their caste, VCK general secretary and MP D Ravikumar told DT Next that he appealed to the Minister to look into the issue.

Pointing out the SC order to amend the prison manual within three months, the MP said it is a good opportunity for the TN government to reform and frame a model Prison Manual for the entire country.

“I appeal to the CM to constitute an expert committee by roping in retired HC judges, civil activists, and people representatives to prepare a modern Prison Manual that aids reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners, without discriminating against them in any way,” he added.