Allahabad High Court Urges UP Govt. To Enforce Removal Of Caste Signage From Vehicles; Bans Inclusion Of Caste Details In Police Records

The High Court, while dismissing an application under Section 482 CrPC seeking quashing of criminal proceedings against an accused in a liquor smuggling case, engaged in a wider deliberation on caste identity and its role in policing and public life.

Justice Vinod Diwakar, while making these observations, remarked 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.”

Advocate Prashant Sharma represented the applicant, while Advocate Amrit Raj Chaurasiya, AGA, appeared on behalf of the respondents.

Background

The proceedings arose from an application under Section 482 of the CrPC seeking to quash an FIR. The applicant was accused of involvement in liquor smuggling, and the seizure memo prepared during the investigation recorded not only his personal particulars but also his caste identity.

The Allahabad High Court noted that the FIR and related documents contained caste references such as Mali, Pahadi Rajput, Thakur, Punjabi Parashar, and Brahmin and took serious exception to the practice of disclosing caste in police records, terming it unnecessary, unconstitutional, and reflective of caste consciousness in state institutions.

Court’s Observations

Constitutional Morality and The Caste System

The Allahabad High Court, while taking note of the investigating officer having recorded the caste of the accused in the FIR and seizure memo, held that such disclosure served no lawful purpose and amounted to identity profiling rather than objective investigation. The Court rejected the Director General of Police’s justification that caste helped in identifying accused persons, emphasising that modern tools such as Aadhaar, fingerprints, and detailed physical descriptions made such practice unnecessary and constitutionally untenable

While making these observations, Justice Diwakar recalled Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s warning in the Constituent Assembly debates that the caste system is “anti-national” as it divides society, and stressed that “fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation.”

Drawing upon Supreme Court precedents, including Indra Sawhney v. Union of India, Ashok Kumar Thakur v. Union of India, and State of Rajasthan v. Gautam, the Bench held that caste-based identification has no place in judicial or administrative records and that its persistence in state practices undermines India’s secular and egalitarian framework. It

Socio-Psychological Dimensions of Caste & Impact on Law Enforcement Agencies

The Allahabad High Court further provided an analysis of the caste system as a psychological construct, observing that caste pride often masks insecurity and reflects cultural narcissism and group egotism. The Court noted that caste assertions manifest in public through emblems on vehicles and in digital spaces through social media reels that glorify caste dominance, and regressive honour codes. Such behaviour, the Court remarked, “reflects a failure of the education system, law enforcement, and political class to instil constitutional values of FRATERNITY, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.”

The Court warned that law enforcement agencies are not immune from caste biases. It highlighted that the investigating officer’s decision to record caste, despite no statutory requirement, “reveals that the problem of caste is not just in society or religion but embedded in the mental framework of the State itself.” This, the Court underscored, represents “one of the most serious challenges to constitutional democracy in India.”

The High Court stressed that “legal and institutional reforms must be accompanied by a moral and psychological revolution in the minds of those entrusted with upholding the law” and that “only then can we hope to dismantle the caste matrix that continues to influence India’s criminal justice system.”

Need For Structural Reform - Directions and Recommendations

Justice Diwakar, while observing that India has one of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination legal frameworks in the world, and that most measures focus only on protection and affirmative action rather than dismantling caste prejudice itself, highlighted the absence of nationwide awareness programmes targeted at caste prejudice, contrasting this with campaigns on cleanliness and gender equality.

To address the psychological dimensions of system-based privileges and behaviour sentiments, the Bench observed, “legal reform must go beyond punitive measures, and the rule of law shall be given prominence while dealing with biases, and to eliminate such biases and prejudices, the sensitization of the judiciary and police through anti-bias training programmes and introducing new curricular reform to challenge casteist and sexist narratives in schools and colleges, and in bureaucratic setups.”

While issuing a series of directions to the Government of Uttar Pradesh and seeking their implementation, the bench remarked: “The ACS (Home) in consultation with the DGP, Uttar Pradesh shall frame and implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to implement aforesaid guidelines, and amend police manuals/ regulation, if necessary, to prohibit the caste disclosure in investigations and public records of complainant/informant, accused and witnesses, however, complainant(s)/informant(s) are exempted only in cases where there is a statutory requirement for mentioning caste, like in cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and other public records.”

The High Court further recommended that the Union Government amend the Central Motor Vehicle Rules to ban caste slogans and identifiers on private and public vehicles, strengthen IT rules to curb caste-glorifying content on social media, and launch media literacy campaigns targeted at the youth. It also suggested setting up reporting mechanisms for violations, involving the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, the Ministry of Electronics & IT, the Press Council of India, and other civil society groups.

Conclusion

In the matter at hand, the petition under Section 482 CrPC was dismissed, with the Court holding that a prima facie case of liquor smuggling was made out against the applicant. The Registry was directed to transmit a copy of the order to the Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh, for immediate compliance and the Union Home Secretary, Government of India, for reference and information.

Cause Title: Praveen Chetri Vs State of UP & Anr (Neutral Citation: 2025:AHC:165563)

Appearances

Petitioners: Advocates Prashant Sharma and Surendra Pratap Singh

Respondents: Amrit Raj Chaurasiya, AGA

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