The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has disposed of a public interest litigation petition that had sought a direction to the State to remove the condition to fill the caste, religion and Aadhaar columns from the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) online registration, after it was submitted that disclosure in these columns was not mandatory.
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A Division Bench of Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy disposed of the PIL petition filed by V. Janaki in 2019, taking cognisance of the submission by the School Education Department that said the disclosure in these columns was only optional.
Special Government Pleader S. Srimathy submitted that such columns were meant to be filled as an exercise of option in the event of any concession to be claimed, on the strength of such disclosure, either at the time of admission or in the future. Otherwise, the disclosure was not mandatory, she submitted.
Disposing of the petition, the judges observed that by the submissions it appeared reasonable that in the event of any concession sought to be claimed on the basis of the disclosure in these columns, then the person might have to necessarily part with the relevant information as it would form the foundation for seeking any such concession.
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