JOIN US A Bench of Justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice, National Commission for Backward Classes, Ministry of Tribal Welfare and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on the petition of Mohan Dhansing Chavhan, a member of the tribe.
Besides seeking reservation benefits, the petition also sought census enumeration of such neglected de-notified as it was not being since Independence, counsel Nitin Mesharam told the Bench. “They are landless, homeless, education-less and most to this employment-less. They are rather most unfortunate people of India constituting approximately 15 crore in population of this country.
“The DTNTs are the indigenous tribal communities with non-Aryan culture. They are under the stigma of criminality and untouchability by birth since pre-Independent India. They are the nomads and the wandering tribes pursuing their age old means of livelihood. “They are the destitute without any permanent abode to live and settle. They don’t have land, education, skill and knowledge of the present day advanced world and millions of them are sick and malnourished. Such is the plight of the DTNTs in the Democratic India,” the petition said.