HC asks UP to cease practice of mentioning caste in police records

Prayagraj, Sep 21 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately cease the practice of mentioning the caste of an accused in police records, describing the practice as a "legal fallacy" that "undermines constitutional morality" and poses a serious challenge to constitutional democracy.

The direction was passed by Justice Vinod Diwakar while hearing a criminal case related to liquor smuggling.

In its judgment on September 16, the court described the practice as a "legal fallacy" and an act of "identity profiling" that "undermines constitutional morality" and poses a "serious challenge to constitutional democracy." The court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to overhaul its police documentation procedures by removing all columns and entries pertaining to the caste of accused persons, informants, and witnesses from official forms.

"Recording the caste of the accused as Mali, Pahadi, Rajput, Thakur, Punjabi Parashar and Brahmin in the impugned FIR and seizure memo serves no lawful or legitimate purpose. What is truly unfortunate is that, rather than recommending a departmental inquiry or ensuring the officer undergoes sensitisation on constitutional morality and social concerns, the conduct was defended on vague and unsustainable grounds," the court said.

"Such insensitivity on the part of the state's highest police authority compelled this court to engage in a deeper deliberation on the larger issue of caste based prejudices, leading to the issuance of recommendations (with the hope and expectation that a serious and deliberate consideration by the Union would strengthen the intent of these deliberations to achieve constitutional obligations towards caste-less society) to various departments of the Union Government, as well as specific directions to the State of Uttar Pradesh," the court added.

The court also noted that in prescribed format of FIR there is no para demanding mandatory mention of caste.

"On examination of aforesaid formats, it's revealed that there is no para in the First Information Report format wherein it is mandatory for the police to mention the caste and religion of accused and complainant," the court said.

Similarly, on examination of the Crime Detail Form, it's revealed that there is no para for identification of the accused based on caste and religion, the court observed.

Showing disagreement with police stand, the court observed, "With regard to the police's stand on the identification of the accused based on caste, it is a legal fallacy. In the first quarter of the 21st century, the police still rely on caste as a means of identification. It's unfortunate.

"This is particularly untenable when modern tools such as body cameras, mobile cameras, fingerprints, Aadhar cards, mobile numbers, and parental details are available. In addition, the formats themselves already contain extensive descriptive fields relating to the accused, including sex, date/year of birth, build, height (in centimetres), complexion, identification marks, deformities/peculiarities, teeth, hair, eyes, habits, dress habits, language/ dialect, burn marks, leucoderma, moles, scars, and tattoos, if any. Therefore, this Court is not impressed with the reasoning of the Director General of Police," it said.

The court also said the rise of digital platforms like Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook reels has given young caste-identified individuals a platform for performance.

These reels often romanticise caste aggression and dominance, rural masculinity, and regressive honour codes. The socio-psychological, cultural, and legal dimensions of such behaviour reveal how the assertion of caste in public domains undermines constitutional morality and reflects an identity crisis rooted in historical superiority and modern insecurity, the court observed.

"Social media becomes an echo chamber for hyper-masculine caste identity, historical revisionism (e.g., glorifying feudal lords or caste based political leaders). It promotes a toxic digital masculinity rooted in caste, weaponising tradition in a postmodern format. The digital caste ego is further influencing the cognitive behaviour of the youth, thereby undermining the constitutional morality of brotherhood and unity," the court said.

The court also said that the government may prepare a regulated framework to regulate and amend the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) to explicitly ban caste-based slogans and caste identifiers on all private and public vehicles. Issue uniform circulars to RTOs and traffic departments across the state to enforce the removal of caste signage and impose heavy fines, which may act as a deterrent. PTI COR RAJ DV DV