Allahabad HC’s directives, Uttar Pradesh prohibits caste mention in FIR
INTRODUCTION:
Acting on the recent directives by the Allahabad High Court asking Uttar Pradesh to regulate caste glorification, the State on Sunday,September 22,2025 issued a notification prohibiting caste-based political rallies, mention of the casts of accused persons in police stations and reference to caste on vehicles, signboards etc. Ordering a prohibition on caste-based rallies, officiating Chief Secretary (CS) Deepak Kumar said they are organised for political purposes and promote caste conflict in society, which is contrary to “public order” and “national unity.”
“Such rallies will be completely banned in the state of Uttar Pradesh,” accordingly reported by Mr Kumar. The court emphasized that modern methods such as Aadhaar, fingerprints, and mobile tracking sufficiently identify accused individuals without resorting to caste. The police and authorities have been directed to remove caste references from FIRs, seizure memos, and all police documents, except where explicitly required by laws like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. This stance aligns with the constitutional goal of abolishing caste-based distinctions in legal processes to prevent systemic discrimination
HC’S DIRECTIVES:
The Chief Secretary said the policy of the state government is to have an inclusive system with constitutional values and in an order to achieve the same, it is essential to eliminate caste-based discrimination prevalent in society.
Issued to all Secretaries, District Magistrates, and Police Chiefs, Mr Kumar added that officials must ensure strict monitoring of social media messages that glorify or condemn any caste.Strict action should be taken against those who spread caste hatred or incite caste sentiments through social media.
The CS also directed the police to follow up with National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) to delete the field for entering the caste of the accused from the formats used on the CCTNS portal. Until the NCRB makes this change, police have been asked to leave the non-mandatory caste field blank.
No mention of caste will be permitted for accused persons at police stations, in recovery panchnama, arrest memo, and personal search memo.
WHAT GOVERNMENT SAYS :
The government order prohibits a range of public displays of caste identity. Most significantly, it imposes a complete ban on caste-based political rallies across the state, stating that they promote social conflict and are a threat to “public order” and “national unity”. The order also takes aim at the common practice of displaying caste names, slogans and stickers on vehicles, directing authorities to challan such vehicles under the Central Motor Vehicles Act. In public spaces, signboards or proclamations that glorify a particular caste or declare certain areas as “caste territories or estates” are to be removed immediately.
In a major procedural change for law enforcement, the order bars the mention of an accused person’s caste in most police records, including first information reports (FIRs), recovery memos and arrest memos. It directed the caste column for the accused to be deleted from the central Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems crime portal and for the mother’s name of the accused to be recorded along with the father’s.
The only exception is for cases where there is a legal necessity to record caste, such as those filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The order calls for strict monitoring of social media to curb messages that glorify or denigrate any caste and mandates “strict action” against those who spread caste-based hatred online.
THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT CASE THAT TRIGGERED THE ORDER:
The government’s directive is a direct consequence of the Allahabad High Court’s judgment in Praveen Chetri v State of UP & Another, a criminal matter that had come up before Justice Vinod Diwakar. The petitioner, Chetri, was arrested in April 2023 for allegedly smuggling illicit liquor. He had approached the High Court seeking to have the criminal proceedings against him quashed.
While examining the case files, Justice Diwakar noted that the police had recorded the caste of each of the accused – ‘Mali’, ‘Pahadi Rajput’, ‘Thakur’ and ‘Brahmin’ – in the FIR and seizure memo. Finding this practice “regressive” and “resistant to the idea of a progressive, transformed, developed, modern, and unified India”, the court asked the Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh to submit a personal affidavit justifying the “requirement and relevance of mentioning the caste of a suspect”.
The court ultimately dismissed the petition, finding that a prima facie case existed against him. However, Justice Diwakar used the opportunity to address the larger issue of casteism that his query to the DGP had raised.
WHAT THE HIGH COURT OBSERVED AND DIRECTED:
Justice Diwakar criticised the DGP’s justification that mentioning caste was a long-standing practice for identification, calling it a “legal fallacy” when modern tools like Aadhaar cards, mobile cameras and fingerprints, among others, are available.
In the judgment, the court embarked on a wide-ranging discussion on the socio-psychological impact of caste. It observed that the caste system “poses a serious threat to secularism and, as a consequence, to the integrity of the country,” invoking Dr BR Ambedkar’s vision of a “casteless society.”
The court took note of the modern manifestations of caste pride, especially in northern states like UP. “Individuals commonly mark their cars, bikes, and sometimes homes with caste identifiers,” the judgment stated. “Vehicles adorned with caste emblems, slogans or even warnings.” It also commented on the rise of caste-based content on social media, which it said reflected “cultural narcissism” and a “toxic digital masculinity rooted in caste.”
Critically, the court said the problem of caste is “not just in society or religion but embedded in the mental framework of the State itself,” noting that law enforcement agencies often “reflect, reproduce, and sometimes intensify caste-based prejudices.”
The court issued a series of binding directions for the UP government. It mandated the removal of all references to caste or tribe from police forms and notice boards. It also ordered the immediate removal of caste-based signboards from public spaces and directed the state to frame standard operating procedures to prohibit caste disclosure in investigations. The court also made some non-binding recommendations to the state government. It recommended that the government may amend the Central Motor Vehicle Rules “to explicitly ban caste-based slogans and caste identifiers on all private and public vehicles.” It suggested the amendment of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 “to flag and act against caste-glorifying, hate-inducing content on social media”.While the High Court deprecated caste-based political rallies in its judgment, it did not issue any direction to ban them. However, the government, in its order, has issued a complete prohibition on such rallies, making it arguably the most politically significant provision of the new directive.
REFERENCES
HINDUSTHAN TIMES.
TIMES OF INDIA.
ECONOMICS TIMES.
Indianexpress.com
thehindu.com
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.
