Supreme Court notice to Centre on plea seeking caste-based census for OBCs

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha issued notices to the Centre, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and others while seeking their replies.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has sought response from the Centre and others on a plea seeking directions for a caste-based census for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the upcoming Census.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha issued notices to the Centre, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and others while seeking their replies. It also tagged the matter with a similar case pending before it.

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The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Krishan Kanhaya Pal who said that the governments are unable to share the benefits of the welfare schemes with all sections among backward classes due to a lack of caste-based survey and a caste-based census of the OBCs is of ‘vital necessity’.

The petition had contended that concrete policies cannot be formulated in the absence of concrete data.

Pal had stated that despite the announcement made by the then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in 2018, there would be a census of the OBC population during the 2021 Census, however, the government refrained from tabling the report of the Rohini Commission that was established in 2017.