Plea files in SC challenging Patna High Court order on Caste Based Census

A Petition filed on Thursday August 3, in Supreme Court that Challenged the Patna High Court order on caste based census in Bihar.

Petitioner Akhilesh Kumar has challenged the Patna High Court order in the Supreme Court. Although On the Wednesday, the Bihar government has already filed a caveat in the Supreme Court saying that if any petition is filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the Patna High Court, then the court should not issue any order without hearing them.

In fact, the Nitish government got a big order on the caste-based census in Bihar on Tuesday from the Patna High Court. The Patna High Court had dismissed all the petitions filed against the caste based Census. Earlier on May 4, the High Court, while hearing the petitions filed against the caste enumeration, had put a temporary stay on it. But now the High Court had upheld the Nitish government’s decision to conduct caste census.

The Patna High Court had heard the petition filed against the caste enumeration for five consecutive days last month. After hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court had reserved its verdict on July 7. On Tuesday, the High Court issued a nearly 100-page order. The important fact is that the court has rejected all those applications, in which a stay was sought, arguing that the work of the census is only of the Center and not of the state.

Last year, the Nitish government had issued a notification for conducting caste census in Bihar. After this work started on it in January 2023. The caste enumeration was done in two phases. The first phase started in January and the second in April. During the second phase, the Patna High Court temporarily stayed the caste enumeration. Due to which the work on it stopped in Bihar, as well as the data collected till then was kept safe on the orders of the court.

Nitish government has been in favor of conducting caste census for a long time. Nitish government has passed the proposal of caste census in Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council on 18 February 2019 and again on 27 February 2020.