Madhya Pradesh High Court: In the instant writ petition, wherein it was prayed that the use of nomenclature ‘Dalit’ be prohibited in government/non government organizations, while making of penal provisions and within public at large as well, the Division Bench of Sanjay Yadav and Ashok Kumar Joshi, JJ., observed that they have no doubt that the Central Government/State Government and their functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature ‘Dalit’ for the members of scheduled castes and schedules tribes, as the same not does not find mention in the Constitution of India or any other statute.
The Bench also examined that the petitioner had sought more time more time to file documents, correspondence, rules or regulations entered into and/or issued by the Central Government or State Government using ‘Dalit’ to depict the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, however despite providing multiple opportunities, the petitioner failed to bring on record any document issued by the functionaries of Central Government/State Government to use ‘Dalit’ as interchangeable with “Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes”. Concluding with the aforementioned observation, the Court disposed off the petition. [Dr. Mohanlal Mahor v. Union of India, 2018 SCC OnLine MP 36, decided on 15.01.2018]