Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL seeking social and caste-based census

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that called for the conduct of a social and caste-based census. (R Prasad Naidu v Union of India and ors).A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti pointed out that it was a policy matter in which the top court was not inclined to interfere. "What is this? This is in the domain of governance. What can we do?" Justice Roy asked when the matter was taken up."94 countries have done it. India (has) yet to do. Indra Sawhney Judgment says that this has to be done periodically," replied the petitioner's counsel. "Sorry, we are dismissing it. We cannot interfere. This is a policy matter," Justice Roy maintained. In view of the Court's stance, the plea was eventually withdrawn by the petitioner..The landmark Indra Sawhney ruling of 1992 had upheld the validity of reservations for backward castes while imposing a 50 per cent cap for reservations. The ruling was re-affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Maratha reservations case in 2021. .The issue of conducting a caste census has been subject to some debate and political controversy in recent years. The Bihar government's decision to hold one such exercise was also challenged before courts. In August 2023, the Patna High Court upheld the decision to conduct a caste survey in Bihar, although the decision was promptly challenged before the Supreme Court which is yet to finally decide on the matter. A similar exercise of holding a caste census was also sought to be conducted in Maharashtra some time back. In 2021, the Supreme Court rejected a plea to disclose the socio-economic and caste census data compiled in 2011 (not released citing errors) by the Central government so that such a caste survey could be done by the then Uddhav Thackrey-led Shiv Sena government of Maharashtra..The instant plea was filed by one R Prasad Naidu through Advocate Sravan Kumar Karanam. It argued that the move was needed to streamline welfare measures in the country targetted for the most marginalised.Senior Advocate Ravishankar Jandyala appeared for the petitioner.