The Madras high court on Thursday issued a fresh direction to the Centre to conduct caste-wise census in the country.

Allowing a PIL by lawyer R Krishnamoorthy, a division bench on Wednesday directed the Census commissioner to take all steps to hold caste-wise enumeration.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice T S Sivagnanam said the relief sought by the petitioner had already been answered in the affirmative by the court in an earlier verdict on a writ petition.

In its October 2009 judgment, the court had noted that after 1931, there had never been any caste-wise enumeration or tabulation.

"When there cannot be any dispute that there is an increase in the population of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes manifold after 1931, the percentage of reservation fixed on the basis of population in 1931 has to be proportionately increased by conducting caste-wise census," it had held.