The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Registrar-General and the Census Commissioner on a petition for a direction to enumerate and classify the Denotified Tribes and Nomadic Tribes (DTNT) in the second phase of the ongoing Census-2010-2011.
A Bench comprising Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale issued notice on the petition filed by Mohan Dhansing Chavhan after hearing his senior counsel Ravivarma Kumar, who submitted that there was no data about these communities since the government had completely ignored them after Independence.
The Bench also issued notice to the other respondents — the Union Home Secretary, the Cabinet Secretary, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Ministry of Tribal Welfare, and the National Commission for Backward Classes.
A distinct class
The petitioner said he belonged to the Denotified and Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes community. These people were mostly landless and homeless and belonged to tribal communities, forming a distinct class.
The Centre has not undertaken any enumeration of these DTNTs in Census operations.
The petitioner said there was no justification for not conducting enumeration of these communities, and alleged that a hidden apartheid was being practised against them.
‘RTI violated’
Contending that the denial of data through authentic means violated the right to information, he sought a direction to the respondents to conduct a proper enumeration of these communities in the ongoing Census.
