New Delhi, May 5 -- The Supreme Court on Monday issued a sweeping direction restraining courts across the country from imposing bail conditions that carry a "caste colour" or risk generating social friction, coming down hard on instances from Odisha where accused persons, many from Dalit and Adivasi communities, were ordered to clean police stations as a precondition for release. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi described such conditions as "abhorrent, cruel and degrading", holding that they violate basic constitutional guarantees of dignity and equality and are "unknown to law". In a strongly worded order, the court declared all such conditions imposed by courts in Odisha to be "null and void", and clarified that the affected accused would continue to remain on bail without being subjected to any similar or substituted conditions. The court's intervention came in a suo motu case triggered by media reports documenting a pattern of orders - some passed by the Orissa High Court and several trial courts, directing accused persons to perform cleaning work at police stations for extended periods. The bench noted that such directions disproportionately impacted members of marginalised communities, particularly those involved in anti-mining protests....