ORDER :

W.P. (C) No. 841/2021

1. The application for intervention (I.A. No. 121445 of 2021) is allowed.

2. We have heard learned counsel for the parties at length.

3. The relief claimed in this writ petition filed by the State of Maharashtra under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is essentially to direct the Union of India to disclose the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011 (SECC), raw caste data of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the State of Maharashtra.

4. The respondent-Union of India has filed reply affidavit (dated 21.09.2021) and further affidavit (dated 14.12.2021) stating, emphatically, that the information collated during the Census as per the Census Act, 1948, was specific to Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes category only.

5. The SECC was resorted to owing to a subsequent decision taken by the Union Cabinet. It was not an OBC Survey as such, but a comprehensive exercise to enumerate the caste status of all the households in the country. Further, the information collated during such census is unusable as it is not accurate and fraught with multiple technical flaws. Several practical deficiencies are cited (in paragraph 15 of the affidavit) justifying reluctance