Caste-wise census should be taken up by Centre: HC

The Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RGCC) informed the Madras High Court on Saturday, that the issue of a caste-wise census had been taken up with the Centre.

Further course of action would be taken after receiving a reply from the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment as matters relating to Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and other backward communities lay within the domain of the ministry, the RGCC said in a counter affidavit filed in connection with a writ petition filed in the high court. In the petition, Advocates Forum for Social Justice, represented by its president K Balu, had sought a direction to the census authorities to include a separate column in the decennial census to be conducted in 2011

in which data pertaining to OBCs would be collected on the basis of that followed for SCs and STs.

The forum's grievance was that no adequate representation was accorded to OBCs and therefore, all data were necessary for furthering the cause of the community. The forum said it was left with no option but to move the court as there was no reply from the Centre to its representation. When the matter came up before the first bench comprising Chief Justice H L Gokhale and Justice K K Sasidharan, counsel for the authorities concerned said the forum would get a reply within eight weeks. Disposing of the petition, the Bench hoped the authorities would consider the forum's representation in all seriousness and send an appropriate reply to it.