The Supreme Court on Friday shot down a decision of the Madras High Court directing a caste-based census, including enumeration of castes other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra found fault with the reasoning of the HC to pass such an order as in its view it lie within the prerogative of Government’s policy-making powers on which the Courts cannot legislate.
The decision of the HC passed in May 2010 was set aside by the apex court which upheld the appeal filed by the Centre. The Government had argued that while SCs and STs are enumerated in each Census, it was not possible to have a comprehensive caste-based census, the first having been held in 1931, enumerating castes outside SC/ST.
Moreover, the bench observed under the Census Act, Government was authorised to frame policies to conduct census. It could be faulted by Courts only on grounds of being “absolutely capricious” or arbitrary or a violation of fundamental right.
The bench said, “The High Court, to say the least, had no justification to pave such a path and we have no hesitation in treating the said path as a colossal transgression of power of judicial review, and that makes the order sensitively susceptible.”