The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has issued notices to Centre and Uttar Pradesh Government on a PIL seeking direction on prohibiting use of word 'Dalit' in official matters. A division bench of justices Devi Prasad Singh and Anil Kumar has also sought reply from Election Commission of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Caste. The PIL filed by one Kaushal Kishore submitted that the use of the word 'Dalit' is derogatory and that it should not be used by the Union and state governments among others. The Court said "to adjudicate whether the word 'Dalit' is derogatory or not,it shall be appropriate that National Commission for Scheduled Caste may be impleaded as respondent in the PIL". Accordingly,the court permitted the petitioner's counsel to implead the Commission as respondent. The Court directed the respondents to file their counter affidavits within four weeks. The next hearing would be in the third week of January 2010.
