"Cumbersome": Centre To Supreme Court On Backward Classes' Caste Census

The Centre's stand assumes significance as recently, a 10-party delegation from Bihar, which was led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding caste Census.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that caste Census of Backward Classes is "administratively difficult and cumbersome" and excluding such information from the purview of Census is a "conscious policy decision."

The Centre's stand assumes significance as recently, a 10-party delegation from Bihar, which was led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding caste Census.

In an affidavit filed in the top court, the government has said that caste enumeration in Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was "fraught" with mistakes and inaccuracies.

The affidavit was filed in the top court in response to a plea by Maharashtra seeking a direction to the Centre and other concerned authorities to disclose to the state the SECC 2011 raw caste data of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) which is not made available to them on "repeated demand".