Supreme Court Says Caste-Based Labour in Prisons is Unconstitutional; Haryana Elections Are a Straight Fight Between the BJP and the Congress; Kangana Ranaut’s Comments Once Again Spark a Row

Activist Sonam Wangchuk once again finds his movements restricted, Tensions rising between allies BJP and JD (U) in Bihar, BJP leader Ashok Tanwar joins the Congress in Haryana

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Sushant Singh, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Tanweer Alam, Siddharth Varadarajan and Seema Chishti | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK 

---

Snapshot of the day

October 3, 2024

Sidharth Bhatia

Following a petition by The Wire’s Sukanya Shantha, a Supreme Court bench today said that caste-based division of labour in the country’s prisons are unconstitutional and directed the revision of prison manuals. The Wire has a list of noteworthy observations the court’s 148-page order made today, including that “segregating prisoners on the basis of caste would reinforce caste differences”, that inmates of some caste are clearly made to perform “degrading” tasks that others aren’t, and that the “caste column” in prisoner registers be scrapped. Krishnadas Rajagopal reports that the bench also proscribed the treatment of the long-marginalised Denotified Tribes as ‘habitual offenders’ inside prisons.

Sonam Wangchuk was taken to Rajghat and released yesterday evening and was told