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• the state had filed its reply containing provisions from its prison manual as well as stating that there was no caste-based discrimination taking place in the prisons.
• The Court also registered a suo motu case titled "In Re: Discrimination Inside Prisons in India" taking suo motu cognizance of the discrimination in the prisons and directed the listing of the matter after three weeks to seek compliance reports from the Union/States.
• Petition highlights identical discriminatory laws within the State Prison Manual of 13 major states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, etc.
• the discrimination was taking place in three ways: (i) through division of manual labor; (ii) through segregation of barracks on caste lines; (iii) through extant provisions in state prison manuals which discriminate against prisoners belonging to de-notified tribes (referred to as criminal or wandering and nomadic tribes in the manuals) and “habit...
• the Model Prison Manual was inadequate insofar as there was a need to address caste-based discrimination in Indian prisons. The counsels further pointed out that they had placed on record testimonials from undertrials (past and present), detailing their experiences of the discriminatory practices.

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