New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Monday observed that changing the nomenclature would go a long way in stopping persons from being identified by names of their castes, and asked the Centre to consider changing the nomenclature but retain the character of rights of persons from the SC category to avoid using certain terms in the caste certificates.
The matter was heard by a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh. "Our country has come a long way from 1950 to 2025. Now, in 2025 it is not advisable to use these words and expressions. Yes, it is purely a legislative issue and we have issued notice for the simple reason of sensitising the Centre about the issue," observed the bench, adding that it agrees that it was for Parliament to decide on the issue.
The bench said changing the nomenclature would go a long way in stopping persons from being identified by names of their castes. Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, representing the Centre, said it was a policy decision and removal of these words might affect their rights and benefits extended to them for being in Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
"You can change the nomenclature without changing the character of these persons. Hindi has got a very rich vocabulary. You can use anything but these words," said the bench. The bench made it clear that nobody is seeking removal of the words but renaming them and the court only wanted Parliament to take cognisance of the issue.
"If I was the advocate general and if I had to advise the government then I would have suggested the use of words like Bamiki-1, Balmiki-2 and Balmiki-3, etc. Even Mahatma Gandhi coined a word like Harijan for people of the scheduled caste category. They need not be deprived of their rights by changing the nomenclature," Justice Surya Kant said.
Advocate Harish Pandey, representing the NGO Akhil Bhartiya Gihara Samaj Parishad, said the authorities could issue general certificates of SC/ST categories without mentioning any subcastes. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing after six weeks and asked the Centre to examine the issue.
The top court in November, last year, had issued notice to the Centre on a plea seeking direction for not to use certain words and replace the words in the caste certificates. The plea had said that words are used by common people as words of insult and abuse.
