Overview
- India’s Supreme Court, which heard the case on Tuesday, refused to entertain the writ petition and disposed of it with liberty to approach the census authorities.
- Chief Justice Surya Kant warned of a calculated effort to divide society and questioned creating new identity classes, with reports quoting him as hinting at outside influence.
- The petition by DNT leader Dakxinkumar Bajrange, argued by senior advocate Siddharth Dave, sought a specific census question so Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes could be identified in data.
- Dave told the bench the Social Justice Ministry supports counting these communities, though no formal government decision has been announced and the current forms list only SC, ST and Others.
- Petition filings said DNTs face stigma from the colonial Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 and have lacked a distinct count since 1913, which commissions in 2008 and 2017 said blocks targeted welfare and planning.