SC turns down Maha govt plea for direction to Centre to share raw caste Census data

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down Maharashtra government's petition seeking the apex court's direction to the Centre to provide Socio-Economic Caste Census (WECC) on Other Backward Classes (OBCs), following the Centre's contention that data collected is flawed.

The Maharashtra government sought the raw data collected in the Socio-Economic Caste Census held in 2011.

The Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the apex court that the SECC was resorted to by way of a separate decision by Cabinet, which did not constitute a survey of OBC's; it was intended for ascertaining caste status of all households in the country. A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and consisting of Justice CT Ravikumar, noted that as per Union of India the information collated in the exercise is unusable.

The top court recorded Centre's contention that the data is fraught with mistakes and the information collated during Census was specific to SC and ST only. The purpose the Maharashtra government cited to seek the raw Census data is for implementing reservation for OBC in the local body elections.

The bench dismissed the Maharashtra government's plea mainly based on the Centre's submission that SECC-2011 was not an exercise to enumerate the data of backward classes.

Mehta submitted that SECC-2011 was not undertaken under the Census Act 1948, rather it was done on the basis of executive instructions of the concerned ministry to enumerate the caste status of households in the country for identifying eligible families for delivery of targeted benefits.

After arguments, the top court said it cannot issue a direction to the Centre to share the raw caste data of SECC-2011 with Maharashtra, as it will further create confusion.

"Such direction will lead to confusion and uncertainty, which cannot be countenanced", the court remarked

The court said: "The fact remains that the affidavit filed before this court by the Union of India emphatically states that data which is collated is not accurate and not usable."

The bench added that if that is the stand taken by the government, then "we fail to understand how mandamus can be issued to the respondent to permit the state of Maharashtra to use the date for any purpose".

(Based on IANS feed with minor edits)