Observing that the endeavour of the country must be to move towards a casteless society, the Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition which sought a direction to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner to consider a plea to conduct a caste-based census in 2021.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Pongiappan refused to entertain the petition filed by advocate R. Anandha Babu, also treasurer of the Chennai Vanniyakula Kshatriya Maha Sangam, on the ground that he had not made out a case to issue a direction to the Census Commissioner to consider his representation.
The judges took note that the State government had already constituted a commission headed by retired High Court judge A. Kulasekaran to conduct a survey for collecting caste wise data.
Invoke RTI Act
They also said the petitioner could invoke the Right to Information (RTI) Act to know the status of a representation made to the Census Commissioner on March 14. The Bench said Article 38 (2) of the Constitution requires the State to strive to minimise the inequalities in income and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations.
However, pointing out that the Article falls under Part-IV (Directive Principles of State Policy) of the Constitution, the judges said that Article 37 makes it clear that the provisions in Part-IV shall not be enforceable by any court though the principles laid down therein would be fundamental in governance of the country.
