CHENNAI: A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court for a direction to the School Education authorities not to insist on mentioning of caste and religion in the relevant documents. A vacation bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and MV Mudalidharan, before which the PIL from activist G Balakrishnan of Villivakkam came up for hearing on Thursday, adjourned it till June 15.
The PIL prayed for appropriate instructions to the authorities in the Higher Education and School Education Departments to take prompt steps to implement a GO dated July 31, 2000 of the School Education (C-2) Department, which dealt with the right of the parents/wards not to be compelled to declare religion and caste while seeking admission in institutions and to permit them to mention as “no religion” and “no caste” in the respective columns.
It also prayed for a direction to the educational institutions not to mention the religion/caste in the Transfer Certificates, based on petitioner’s representation dated May 5 last, within a time frame fixed by the court.
A 2000 GO, based on a GO passed on the same lines as early as in 1973, is not known to many. As a result, educational institutions, both government and private, insist upon and compel the students to fill in the columns on religion and caste. To remedy the situation, it is high time that the authorities issued appropriate instructions, the petitioner said.
PIL filed
Filed by activist G Balakrishnan, the PIL seeks direction to School Education authorities not to insist on mention of caste and religion in the relevant documents.