Jaipur: In a landmark judgment, asking the police to stop the practice of mentioning case on arrest warrants and bail applications, the Rajasthan high court said that the accused should be identified by family name. However, it clarified that the order will not be effective in case of SC/ST cases.

Granting bail to a person who was kept in jail for five days because wrong caste was mentioned in bail bonds, Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma observed that government machinery forces people to mention caste, which is against the constitution. “Neither the constitution nor the CrPC has any provision which calls for mentioning caste to identify a person,” Justice Sharma said.

Expressing anguish that caste is still used for identification of a person instead of family name, the judge called for not to divide the society on caste basis because it is against the constitution.

In the above mentioned case, lawyer Giriraj P Sharma told the court that his client Bishan Singh was granted bail by the court on June 29. However, he was still languishing in jail because his bail bond was not accepted due to wrong mention of his caste. The court took exception of it and ordered his release.

D-2