New Delhi, Feb. 27 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that women prisoners cannot be shut out of open correctional institutions (OCIs or open jails) on vague "security" grounds, declaring their exclusion from such facilities to be "blatant gender discrimination" and violative of their Constitutional rights. In a far-reaching judgment aimed at ushering in structural prison reforms, a bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued a slew of binding directions to the Centre, states and Union territories to end the systemic exclusion of women from open prisons, rationalise eligibility norms, expand infrastructure and adopt uniform national standards. "Security concerns shall generally not be made a ground to deny women prisoners access to OCI facilities," ruled the court. The verdict came on a petition filed by civil rights activist Suhas Chakma seeking effective use of OCIs to address prison overcrowding and advance rehabilitation. Senior advocates K Parameshwar and Vijay Hansaria assisted the court as amicus curiae. The bench noted that several states, including Assam, Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, had stated that women were not eligible for transfer to OCIs. Even in Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where women were eligible, no transfers had taken place. The court held that exclusion of women from open prisons was inconsistent with the Model Prison Manual, 2016, and international standards including the Nelson Mandela Rules and the Bangkok Rules. The court directed all states and UTs to amend any rules that directly or indirectly exclude women from open prisons within three months, and to create dedicated facilities wherever integration into existing OCIs is not feasible. Recognising the absence of uniformity in governance, eligibility criteria and rehabilitative facilities across the country, the court also ordered the constitution of a high-powered committee for "Reform and Governance of Open Correctional Institutions"....