Bihar Caste Based Survey: SC Adjourns Hearing on Plea Challenging HC Order till Oct 3

The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on a plea challenging the Patna High Court’s decision to allow a caste survey in Bihar until October 3.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti made the decision in response to a request for adjournment from one of the parties involved in the case.

The top court listed the petition filed by NGO ‘Ek Soch Ek Prayas’ along with other pleas against the same order of the high court.

On August 7, the top Court declined to stay the Patna High Court’s decision permitting the caste survey in Bihar and deferred the hearing on petitions challenging it to August 14. In addition to ‘Ek Soch Ek Prayas,’ another petition has been filed by Akhilesh Kumar, a resident of Nalanda. Kumar argued that the state government’s notification for the survey goes against constitutional provisions, as only the Union government is authorized to conduct a census. He claimed that the state’s notification violates the constitutional distribution of powers between the state and the Union government, rendering it void from the outset. Kumar’s petition also alleged that the Bihar government’s census exercise lacked authority and legislative competence and was carried out in bad faith.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has maintained that the state is not conducting a caste census but is merely collecting information on people’s economic status and caste to better serve them. The high court, in its 101-page verdict, deemed the state’s actions valid and initiated with due competence to promote development with justice. Following the high court’s decision, the state government suspended ongoing teacher training programs to expedite the survey.

On August 25, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the survey had been completed, and the data would be made public soon. However, senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, representing a petitioner in the case, argued against making the data public, citing concerns about infringing people’s right to privacy.