A caveat was today filed in the Supreme Court against the Centre which is expected to file a Special Leave Petition challenging the Madras high court direction for conduct of a caste-based census in the country.
A caveat is an application moved by a person pleading that the court shall not pass any order until he/she is heard in the matter.
In the present case, petitioners R Krishnamurthy and P Emmanuel Prakasam, both advocates from Tamil Nadu have filed the caveat anticipating that the union government would seek a stay of the Madras high court order.
The Madras high court had recently directed the union government to conduct caste-wise census on a PIL filed by the advocates who had contented that it was essential to ensure that reservation benefits accrued to deserving beneficiaries on the basis of the latest data.
The PIL submitted the last caste census was conducted in 1931 and despite recommendations by the Mandal and Kalekar Commissions, no such has exercise had been undertaken by the government.
According to the PIL, only through a caste-based census, socially and economically backward class citizens and weaker section of the country could be identified to dole out the benefits.
The Madras high court bench of acting chief justice E Dharma Rao and TS Sivagnanam, while directing the Centre to ensure caste-based census, agreed with the view that there cannot be any dispute about the manifold increase in the population of SC, STs, and other OBCs, which warranted a caste based census.
