SC nixes Odisha’s ‘odious’ bail conditions to Adivasi, Dalit accused to clean police stations

The Odisha judiciary’s imposition of “obnoxious” bail conditions for members of Adivasi and Dalit communities, such as cleaning of police stations for two months, suggests that judges have a “reactionary mindset” and caste-based biases, the Supreme Court said on Monday (May 4, 2026).

In a seven-page judgment, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi observed: “Assuming that such conditions are imposed unintentionally or without premeditated bias, the nature of the condition is so repugnant, humiliating and unknown to law that it carries serious potential to cast aspersions on the Odisha Judiciary by suggesting that it is influenced by a caste-based bias.”