The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition seeking a directive to the Centre to halt the caste census. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, dismissed the petition, which also sought a directive for the Centre to formulate policies to provide economic incentives to families with a single child.
On February 2nd, the top court had refused to entertain a separate public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the procedure to be adopted for recording, classifying, and verifying the caste data of citizens in the 2027 general census. The 2027 census, officially the 16th national census, will be the first to include comprehensive caste enumeration since 1931, and it will also be the country's first fully digital census.