Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea challenging Centre's circular against use of term 'Dalit'

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging Centre's notification advising the media to not use the term "Dalit" to describe members of Scheduled Castes.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said it was not interested in entertaining a petition that challenged the 2018 advisory of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asking private satellite television channels to use Scheduled Caste instead of Dalit.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner V A Ramesh Nathan, questioned the legality of the circular and said, "How can the Government of India issue such a circular questioning my identity".


The bench remained unimpressed and said, "At this stage, we are not interested in entertaining this petition. Dismissed."

The ministry, in its August 7, 2018 circular, had advised that the media should refrain from using the word "Dalit" for members belonging to Scheduled Castes and had directed that 'Scheduled Caste' should alone be used for all official transaction, matters, dealings, certificates for denoting the persons belonging to the community.