The Supreme Court has refused to hear the petition demanding a survey on caste and social basis in the country. The bench headed by Justice Rishikesh Rai said that conducting the survey is the government’s job, it is not the court’s responsibility. This is a policy issue. When the Supreme Court refused to hear the matter, the petitioner withdrew his petition.
The petitioner’s lawyer said that such a survey has been done in 94 countries, whereas it has not been done in India yet. He said that the Supreme Court had made it clear in the old Indira Sahni judgment that such a survey should be done at a regular interval.
“We are not issuing a notice here. These all (issues) are in the domain of policy. Whether it is to be conducted now or after six months, these all are essentially the domain of governance,” remarked a bench headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy.
“We will dismiss this petition. The issues raised are in the domain of policy, if you want to withdraw, withdraw it. Otherwise, we will pass a dismissal order,” added the Bench, also comprising Justice SVN Bhatti.
Ultimately, the petitioner’s counsel, who initially submitted that an identical matter is coming up for hearing on September 9 before the apex court, chose to withdraw the PIL.
The plea demanded expeditious enumeration of data for the 2024 census and a Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) for the implementation of welfare measures.
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