MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition, which sought a direction to the state government to conduct a caste-wise survey in the state.
A bench of justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy observed that conducting the above survey comes within the purview of the central government and the state government has no role in it. Moreover, the issue is pending before the Supreme Court. Therefore, this petition cannot be entertained by the high court, the judges added, and dismissed the petition.
The PIL was filed by one M Muniyasamy, member of Tamil Nadu Legal Safety Movement (Trust) in Ramanathapuram. Muniyasamy stated in his petition that the Tamil Nadu government passed a G.O. on December 21, 2020, appointing retired high court judge, Justice A Kulasekaran, to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities and tribes of Tamil Nadu.
The commission was to submit its report within six months but the survey is still pending. Muniyasamy requested the court to direct the government to conduct the caste-wise survey by implementing the said G.O.