Aarohi Girish Dhumale
The Telangana High Court has held that no child can be denied admission for not mentioning caste and religion as even the Census allows people to do so and that there is no necessity to direct the Centre and State Governments to provide an additional column for no caste and no religion.
A PIL was filed in 2017 by a couple, DV Ramakrishna Rao and Saladi Clarence Kriplani to seek a column regarding the no caste and no religion and the said PIL was heard by a Division Bench comprising of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao.
The couple had approached the High Court in 2010 as well when their child was refused admission in LKG at St. Ann’s School in Tarnaka. After the HC’s intervention, the school had admitted the child without details about caste and religion. The Petition was dismissed in 2016.
The couple filed the present PIL in 2017 so that the Court would direct authorities accordingly so that people who say they don’t have any caste or religion would be able to exercise their right to feely profess and propagate religion, which also includes the right to not profess any religion.
The counsel for petitioners, D. Suresh Kumar urged the authorities to include a column for in ‘No caste, no religion’ all forms. The State education authorities contended that there is already an option called ‘nil’ so that people who don’t profess any caste or religion are at liberty to do so.
Bench: Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao