<p>New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a plea questioning the procedure to be adopted to record, classify, and verify the caste data of citizens in the 2027 general census.</p><p>A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, however, asked the Centre and the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, to consider the suggestions made by petitioner Aakash Goel, an academician, in this regard.</p>.SC issues notices to Centre, 12 states on PIL by Christian body against anti-conversion laws.<p>Senior advocate Mukta Gupta, representing the petitioner, contended that a transparent questionnaire, to be used for recording, classifying and verifying the caste details of the citizens, has to be placed in public domain.</p><p>She contended that Directorate of Census Operations has not disclosed the criteria for recording the caste identity of citizens "notwithstanding the acknowledgement that caste enumeration has extended beyond the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes this time".</p><p>The court said that there is "no predetermined data" to identify the caste data. </p><p>"The census exercise is regulated under the Census Act, 1958 and the 1990 Rules framed thereunder which empowers the respondent authorities to determine the particular and manners of census operations," the bench said.</p><p>"We have no reason to doubt that respondent authority, with aid and assistance of domain experts, must have evolved a robust mechanism in order to rule out any mistake as apprehended by the petitioner and several like-minded persons. We find the petitioner has raised some relevant issues through a representation to the Registrar General of Census operations as well," the bench added.</p><p>Subsequently, the court asked the concerned authorities to consider the suggestions and disposed of the PIL.</p><p>The 2027 Census, officially the 16th national census, will be the first to include comprehensive caste enumeration since 1931 and the country's first fully digital census.</p>
<p>New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a plea questioning the procedure to be adopted to record, classify, and verify the caste data of citizens in the 2027 general census.</p><p>A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, however, asked the Centre and the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, to consider the suggestions made by petitioner Aakash Goel, an academician, in this regard.</p>.SC issues notices to Centre, 12 states on PIL by Christian body against anti-conversion laws.<p>Senior advocate Mukta Gupta, representing the petitioner, contended that a transparent questionnaire, to be used for recording, classifying and verifying the caste details of the citizens, has to be placed in public domain.</p><p>She contended that Directorate of Census Operations has not disclosed the criteria for recording the caste identity of citizens "notwithstanding the acknowledgement that caste enumeration has extended beyond the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes this time".</p><p>The court said that there is "no predetermined data" to identify the caste data. </p><p>"The census exercise is regulated under the Census Act, 1958 and the 1990 Rules framed thereunder which empowers the respondent authorities to determine the particular and manners of census operations," the bench said.</p><p>"We have no reason to doubt that respondent authority, with aid and assistance of domain experts, must have evolved a robust mechanism in order to rule out any mistake as apprehended by the petitioner and several like-minded persons. We find the petitioner has raised some relevant issues through a representation to the Registrar General of Census operations as well," the bench added.</p><p>Subsequently, the court asked the concerned authorities to consider the suggestions and disposed of the PIL.</p><p>The 2027 Census, officially the 16th national census, will be the first to include comprehensive caste enumeration since 1931 and the country's first fully digital census.</p>
