Without caste census, OBCs will forever be denied social justice P.N. Sankaran chronicles the debate on caste census, argues that it is indeed feasible and shows how every effort to ensure representation in the State of all historically oppressed communities is bound to fail without such a census On 26 February 2021, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government on a petition seeking caste-based census in the country. The petition said that such a census would address the lack of data needed to provide adequate reservations in jobs and admissions to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC). The proforma for the 2021 census has been announced, the petition said, adding it has 32 columns with headers Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc but has no mention of the OBCs. It sought urgent court intervention to introduce such a proforma for the 2021 census that has a column for the OBCs. Inadequate representation in government jobs and educational institutions, the petition said, was a violation of the fundamental rights of these classes under Articles 14, 15(4), 16 (4) and 46 of the Constitution. The petition filed by Telangana-based social activist G. Mallesh Yadav also informed the court that R. Krishnaiah, president of National Backward Classes Welfare Association, had written to the government seeking a caste-wise census but failed to elicit a response. Having heard the petition, the Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde sought responses from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).[i]