Surya Kant said there was nothing wrong with the government conducting caste enumeration as part of the national census.
The Supreme Court dismissed a PIL seeking removal of caste data collection from the 2027 Census, saying the matter falls within the government’s policy domain.
The Centre had earlier announced that caste enumeration would be included in the second phase of Census 2027, expanding beyond the counting of only SCs and STs done earlier.
A public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking the removal of caste enumeration in a population census was denied by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The Supreme Court ruled that there is nothing improper with the current government determining caste as part of the national census.
“Any government of the day must know how many people are backward and how many need welfare. This is a matter of policy,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, said.
"Whether census should be caste or not caste based is a policy decision. Government has to know how many (people) are backward class etc," the CJI remarked.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi said that the issue lies within the policy domain of the government, and courts cannot intervene.
Sudhakar Gummula, the petitioner-in-person, pleaded with the court that caste enumeration should not be included in the 2027 Census.
Gummula stated, “There are endless possibilities of politicians and corporate entities misusing the caste data. There is no justification for gathering such a large tract of data on caste. ”
“This issue exclusively comes within the policy domain,” the CJI said before the court dismissed the petition.
During a meeting in April of last year, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to include caste enumeration in the Census 2027. Caste enumeration has since been a significant aspect of the 2027 Census.
Before the 2011 Census, only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had been systematically counted.
The inclusion of caste enumeration in the second phase of the 2027 Census was announced by the administration on the floor of the Parliament.
