Telangana High Court Rejects No Caste, No Religion PIL

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court was not inclined to issue directions to the Centre and the state government to provide an additional column stating ‘no religion’ and ‘no caste’ in certificates.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao observed that it was not necessary to have an additional column as there was an option to write ‘nil’.

The court said that no cases were brought to its notice regarding any child being denied school admission for not revealing caste and religion. The court said that affected persons could approach the court when children were denied admission or not given any certificate for not mentioning caste and religion.

The bench was dealing with a PIL filed in 2017. The petitioners requested the court to take steps to issue guidelines and provisions to record ‘no religion’ and ‘no caste’ as an identity in addition to existing identities.

Mohammed Imran Khan, additional advocate-general, said everyone had the option to mention ‘no religion’ and ‘no caste’.

The petitioners said that in 2010, a high school at Tarnaka, Secunderabad, had orally rejected the application for admission of their minor child as they had opted for ‘no religion’ and ‘no caste’. The issue was later redressed, following which they filed the PIL.