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Madras High Court orders to recirculate GOs on ‘no caste/religion’ in school documents
Since the GOs remained unknown, educational institutions, both government and private, compelled students to fill columns regarding religion and caste; thus, a PIL was filed in the high court to publicize the GOs.
Issued in 2000, the school education department's order urged schools not to insist on parents to disclose their caste or community. The order, however, was not followed meticulously because most parents were unaware of the order. The first GO was issued on June 2, 1973, which permitted people not to declare their religion and caste details in school certificates and transfer certificates, if they didn't wished to do so.
Afterwards, a PIL was filed in the high court to re-publish the order so that many reluctant to name castes in their certificates would go for it.
The Madras high court said that the two government orders (GOs) that mandate schools not to mention caste or community of the student by default shall be re-circulated and given "wide publicity" so that those who're unwilling to declare their caste are not compelled to do so.
On Wednesday,the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan passed orders on the PIL of G Balakrishnan and said: "With the avowed object of having a casteless society, the state government issued the GO MS 205 school education department dated July 31, 2000. Counsel for the petitioner submits that the GO needs to be re-emphasised. We are in agreement with the submission of (the) counsel, and thus direct the authorities to circulate the GO giving it wide publicity, so that such persons who do not want to declare their caste or religion are not compelled to do so."
S Sathiachandran, counsel for the petitioner, suggested that since the GOs remained unknown to the general public, both government and private educational institutions compelled students to fill columns regarding caste and religion.
The counsel for the petitioner, also wanted all the educational institutions in Tamil Nadu to be given appropriate instructions by the court, directing them not to mention religion or caste of the student in the transfer certificate issued by the educational institution concerned. The request was, however, declined by the bench, saying, "We cannot issue a mandatory direction that caste shall not be disclosed because some people may want to do so. However, if any person does not want the caste to be disclosed, we feel there is no need to mandatorily to do so, keeping in mind the aforesaid GO."