THE Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to the Centre for conducting a socio-economic caste census for the welfare of backward and other marginalised sections, saying the issue falls in the domain of governance. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti allowed the petitioner P Prasad Naidu to withdraw his plea in which he had sought a direction for expediting the enumeration of data for census. “What can be done about this? The issue is in the domain of governance. It is a policy matter,” the bench told senior advocate Ravishankar Jandyala and advocate Sravan Kumar Karanam, appearing for the petitioner. Jandyala submitted that several countries have done it but India is yet to do.

 

“The Indra Sawhney judgement of 1992 (Mandal Commission verdict) has said that this census has to be done periodically,” he contended. The bench told him it was dismissing the petition as the court could not interfere in the issue. Sensing the mood of the court, the counsel sought permission to withdraw the plea, which was allowed by the bench. Naidu in his plea filed through Karanam said that Centre and its agencies have not conducted the enumeration for the Census-2021 till date. “Initially it was not done due to COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently it has been postponed time and again. That the enumeration of the census of the country for 2021 was initiated in April, 2019. But it was not concluded till date. It is humbly submitted that as per the official website of the Census of India, the first preparatory meeting for conducting Census 2021 was held on April 9, 2019,” the plea said.