Right to live with dignity extends even to incarcerated: SC
New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) “Right to live with dignity extends even to incarcerated” and its denial to the prisoners is a “relic of the colonizers and pre-colonial mechanisms,” the Supreme Court has said.
The observations were made by a bench comprising Chief Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in a landmark judgement delivered on Thursday by which it banned caste-based discrimination like division of manual labour, segregation of barracks, and bias against prisoners of denotified tribes and habitual offenders.
It held as unconstitutional the certain objectionable prison manual rules of 10 states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh.
The CJI, penning the 148-page judgement for the bench, dealt with fundamental rights under Articles 14 (equality), 15 (prohibition of discrimination), 17 (abolition of untouchability), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), and 23 (right against forced labour) of the Constitution.
Dealing with Article under 21, it said, “The right to live with dignity extends even to the incarcerated. Not providing dignity to prisoners is a relic of the colonizers and pre-colonial mechanisms, where oppressive systems were designed to dehumanize and degrade those under the control of the State.
“Authoritarian regimes of the pre-constitutional era saw prisons not only as places of confinement but as tools of domination. This Court, focusing on the changed legal framework brought out by the Constitution, has recognized that even prisoners are entitled to the right to dignity.”
On Article 14, it said the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India and equality is a crucial aspect of the constitutional vision.
“The constitutional standards laid down by the Court under Article 14 can be summarized as follows. First, the Constitution permits classification if there is intelligible differentia and reasonable nexus with the object sought. Second, the classification test cannot be merely applied as a mathematical formula to reach a conclusion…,” it said.
